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
Prophet Habakkuk speaking of Christ in the Spirit tells us Chap. 3. ver 4. is in his hand That is In the spiritual discoveries of Christ which are as hands of light by which he puts forth himself and taks hold of the World As our Author some where expresses himself upon those words Who among us is yet able to comprehend all the distinct ages and growths of good minds To understand the various Improvements measures and attainments the several capacities languages and operations which are peculiar to those ages and growths It is impossible for us to set the bounds to spiritual things To stint that Spirit in our selves or others which is a fountain of Divine Light and Life in all regenerated Souls continually sending forth new streams and running along with afresh succession of Waters without any stop or limit We are too proud to understand the condescentions too low to take the height too shallow to fathom the depth too narrow to measure the breadth too short to reach the length of the Divine truth and goodness and the various communications of theâ—selves to us We cannot assign the highest or the lowest state of Saints whilst they are here below We cannot say all above this is fancy whimsie dream and delusion all below that is common carnal formal and superstitious As we ought not then to despise and contemn that which is below So let us not censure and condemn that which is above us Blessed be God all Good Souls in the midst of their greatest distances from one another here below do all meet in the Divine Comprehension above We are all enfolded in the Divine Arms we are all encircled in the Divine Love That has breadth and length and depth and height enough to reach and hold us all And if we cannot yet receive and embrace each other in our several ages growths measures and attainments it is because we have little low dark narrow and contracted hearts feel but little of the love of Christ and are no more fill'd with that Spirit which is the spring the center the circle the band to all good Spirits in heaven and on Earth There is as great a difference in the statures of Souls as of bodies In the growths of Christians as of men and all other things St. John Joh. 12. c. distinguishes these growths into little Children Young men Fathers twice together That we might take the more distinct notice of them Our Author was in the highest of these ranks Was indeed one of the tallest among his Brethren whether we consider the height of his own spiritual discoveries and enjoyments or the depth of his condescentions to the lowest and least of them For the true stature of any thing cannot be exactly taken without measuring from both ends That is not truly tall or great which seems to stand high and look big but that which reaches furthest which is most extensive comprehending and Universal Our Author was indeed a true Father in Christ and so esteemed by all who knew him For his own great understanding and experience in Divine things for the excellency of his Ministery whereby he did in Jesus Christ thorow the Gospel beget and edifie many As also for the great tenderness and Father like bowels which throughout his whole Ministry and in all his other converses he delighted to be still expressing towards all the weak and little ones Nor was his skill herein less considerable than his Naturalness This Character thou wilt find eminently due to him as thou perusest these discourses in which he is still careful to provide Milk for the Babes whilst he sets stronger Meat before the men Those who are Spiritual and by being so are able spiritually to discern spiritual things to compare them with themselves and to feed on them not only as they are brought down to us in fleshly Images and resemblances But as they express and manifest themselves in us in their own spiritual forms and glories Sure I am if thou art truly come within the compass of the lowest of those growths before mentioned if thou art become so much as a little Child in Christ if thou hast but that genuine instinct and naturalness of Soul towards God and all Divine things which is essential to and inseparable from the New birth in its most infant state if thouâ—hast but the least degree of a Spiritual mind any spiritual sense and savour there are a great many things in this Book which thy Soul must of necessity understand eccho to rellish and acknowledge to be exceeeding good Let then the goodness of what thou dost understand encourage thy Charity to think that which is above thy reach may be better At least let it prevail with thy reason not to judge sentence and condemn it It is every where esteemed an high and difficult Office to be a Judge in the Affairs of this lower World The Wisdom of our Nation has provided as a Noble Author observes that so great a Work should not depend upon One Person every Court of Iudicature having a certain number of Judges or Assistants belonging to it Nor can a Iudge depute his Authority to another it being an Office and Work of greatest Confidence Trust and Skill and therefore personal and inherent And with what wariness and caution do the Rules of all our Courts direct their own proceeding to a Judgment in every little case here below It is certainly a much higher and harder work to be a Iudge in the matters of another World in things not obvious to Sense and transcendent to Reason in things above all the natural Principles of Wisdom or Truth in any creature The Jews speak of it as one of the first things delivered by God to Moses by him to Joshua and so down to all their Elders and Wise men in all Ages To be slow in judging St. Paul cautions us 1 Cor. 4. 5. To judge nothing before the time until the Lord come To pass a Iudgment to pronounee a Sentence upon Persons and Principles in spiritual matters is in its own nature and in the consequences thereof the greatest the weightiest act our Souls can put forth and therefore not to be hastily executed nor indeed at all without his presence from whom all the Authority Power and Capacity of Spiritual Iudgment is derived God has committed all this Iudgment in a more especial manner to Jesus Christ and there can be no true right authentick valid and final Iudgment without him and where he is not present He has no where so deputed this Office and Work to any Person or Company of persons as to alienate the dignity and glory of it from himself And whether he dispence it immediately or mediately he cannot be excluded It is his Presence and Power the Appearances of Christ and the manifestations of his Spirit which do give to any Society of men the Distinction and Authority of a Church to every Church or Person the right the ability of
practices do exceedingly vary and differ from the different degrees and waies of their light within and their educations and customs without The Apostle tells us Rom. 14. One Christian believeth that he may eat all things Another who is weak eateth herbs Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not And let not him which eateth not judge him which eateth For God hath received him One man esteemeth one day above another Another esteemeth every day alike Let every man be fully assured in his own mind He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord And he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it He that eateth eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thanks And he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not and giveth God thanks Both these are different and contrary in their Notions Opinions and practices And yet in that difference and contrariety do both serve the same Lord and are accepted by him They both in their several opinions Notions and practices have the same apprehensions of the glory of God the same reference and regard to it the same aim and intention of Soul to make themselves a Spiritual sacrifice to him Nor does this hold only in the lesser matters of Religion but in the greater also Besides that Babel and confusion of languages that variety and contrariety of opinions which are in the Christian World about things of a lower consideration What disputes what controversies what contradictions do we see at this day among good men concerning the most substantial and vital truths of the Gospel How even among the best Christians themselves are some of the greatest points of Christianity darkened and perplexed with Clouds of disputes with diversity and uncertainty of opinions with different and contrary explications What Principle of Christianity how clearly and expresly soever it has been revealed to us in the letter of the Scriptures has been universally received and explained alike by all good men Do we not every where see those very Persons who have as we have reason to judge entertained the same Divine Truths in the inward power life and Spirit of them do yet discourse interpret and preach them in Notions Opinions and Forms very different and contrary to one another Do we not every where see good men puzling and confounding each other with their own explanations of those very things in the life and power of which they are all agreed Have we not upon this accompt seen some of the best of men such strangers to and so jealous of one another that they have been unable to bear one another Look abroad lay aside all thy prejudice fondness and partiality And then tell me if thou dost not every where meet with the same ingenuity modesty humility and meekness of Soul The same desire and diligence in the search after truth the same goodness holiness of heart and life The same Love to God and his waies the same sincerity and integrity the same purity of intention aim and end in persons that appear to thee and to one another of very different and contrary minds and practices in matters of Religion Their Souls are vitally quickened and informed their conversations beautified and adorned with the same Spiritual truths Which by their explications of them they seem not to understand yea to contradict I have some where read a story of a blind man who could distinguish and judge of all metals or pretious stones by weighing them in his hand I am perswaded if we had learn thus to judge of Spiritual things not by the beauty of some outward form and appearance or an agreeableness to our own Notions and Opinions But by the weight of an inward Principle and the Power of a Divine life We should discover a most harmonious agreement in the Essential and radical Principles of Divine truth and goodness among those who seem most of all to oppose one another in their Notions and Opinions If we did but know how to get into to open and interpret each others Souls How to weigh not only words and phrases but Spirits as God is said to do Prov. 16. 2. We should quickly find that we differ more in words then in thoughts and in the Notions of things then in the things themselves Our Spiritual wisdom holiness strength and happiness do not lye in our Notions and Opinions of Spiritual truth but in the truth itself St. Paul excellently distinguishes and explains this matter 2 Cor. 4. 6 7. Where speaking of the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ he tells us we have this treasure in Earthen Vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us That Spiritual truth which is the shining forth of the glory of God in the Person of Christ the first the supream the universal truth is the heavenly treasure The several Notions and forms in our understandings by which this truth appears to us are but a part of the Earthen Vessel which holds this treasure How weak is it to lay the weight of such a treasure upon such a Vessel subject to so many frailties flaws and cracks How unworthy is it to ascribe the excellency of that power to our selves which belongs wholly to God Sure I am it is not the Vessel that makes us rich but the treasure which is in the Vessel Thus again The same Apostle speaking of the same thing in another expression tells us 1 Cor. 4. 20. The Kingdom of God is not in word but in power This Kingdom consists not in the excellency of our notions and apprehensions of our words and expressions concerning Spiritual things But in the inward Vertue Vigour Life Power and Spirit that is in the Nature of them to change the whole man into one image of glory with themselves Spiritual knowledge is not a notional verbal and talking but a real living and practical thing Divine truth is better understood as it opens and unfolds itself in the holy and heavenly mind and life of a good man then by all the Systems of Divinity and good Books in the World Thy Brother has it may be several Notions and opinions of Spiritual Truth very different from thine But he is really sanctified through the same truth He has purified his Soul in obeying the truth through the Spirit He is become a living Edition of the truth it is written in his heart it shines forth in his life he has so learned the truth that he knows it as it is in Jesus although he cannot yet receive it as it is in thee nor thy notions and representations of it His Soul his life is dyed coloured and figured with it the truth is transforming his whole being into one beautiful and blessed image with framing fashioning his whole man according to itself This must needs be a better proof that he is truly one with thee in the same truth then the highest complement
drawn forth from them What floods of outward miseries have they brought upon them It is this has given such a scope and power to our lusts to our pride ambition covetousness anger wrath bitterness of Spirit and revenge as has been more wounding to Religion then the malice of all the wicked men in the World can possibly be It is this has set us to rake into the Infirmities Weaknesses and Miscarriage of our mistaken Brother And whilst men have been thus employed what heaps of dirt and folly have they poured out of their own Spirits to the greater scandal of themselves and their profession It is this has for several ages delivered up the Christian World to disorder bloud and desolation It is this has rendred a great part of it unhabitable to a man that asserts the just liberty of his mind It is this has made Christians who should be the best of men much worse to each other than wild Bears and Beasts of prey for they devour not one another of the same kind It is this has raised so many suspitions jealousies fears heart-burnings evil surmises mutual provocations to wrath and thoughts of revenge and ruine among our selves that we are almost become an easy prey to our common enemies And if we should escape them are in danger to be consumed one of another We have laid the stress and weight of our Religion upon Notions Opinions outward modes and forms and some of those subservient only to a secular interest and reasons of state and not upon the truth and substance it self which is Jesus Christ and his Spirit For this reason the Righteous God seems to have given up the whole frame of Nature to confusion and destruction and to be drowning the face of the Earth in bloud St. Paul 2 Thesâ— 2. 1. puts these two together The coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him And we often read in the Scripture of his coming with all his Saints Lines are at their greatest distance in the circumference the nearer they come to their center the nearer still they are to one another As we are drawnforth from all those things which we have set up in the room of Christ and are made to unite in his Person alone so shall we also draw near to and be at peace with one another It is he alone who is our King of Righteousness and Prince of Peace the true Shiloe Vnto him shall the gathering of the People be and unto each other in him Nothing more proves him to be so far off from us as our being so miserably scaâ—tered divided and driven away from one another When he shall again return and appear to us in his own Person when we shall for his sake cast away all our Idols and unanimously running into his Bosom cry out with an universal shout None but Christ he alone is that eternal image it self of all truth and goodness which we have been every where seeking our center and rest for ever When we shall no more place our wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption our Religion in those forms and Opinions which are but the outsides and dresses of it and must pass away with the fashion of this World Which are but the leaves and husks that shall fall to the ground But in him who is that Truth Life Power and Substance which endures for ever Then shall a peace which is to encrease without end bless the World All our Swords shall then be beaten into Plow shares our spears turned into pruning-hooks and nothing be left to hurt and destroy in Gods holy Mountain A mutual forbearance indulgence allowance and kindness among all honest hearts of different perswasions and practices has not only thy own interest but the concern of all thy Brethren and the welfare of the whole Christian World after the highest manner contained in it For it is the safety stability security strength and subsistence of a good interest and of all good men in the midst of a very unkind angry and wicked World Whose rage doth not terminate in the extirpation of any one particular sect or party of good men but would by degrees and as fast as it can blot out goodness it self St. Paul with admirable reason joins these two together Eph. 4 2 3. Our walking with all lowliness and meekness with long suffering forbearing one another in love And our endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace It is most plain from this Scripture That the unity of the Church of God is not an agreement in inward Opinions and outward forms But an Unity of Spirit an Unity in that Spirit which is the common Soul of the Church the specificating form the constituting and conserving Principle of all true Christianity We are not united to Christ and to one another by the same Opinions and Forms but by one and the same Spirit nor can any Opinions and Forms divide us from Christ and therefore ought not to separate us from each other if they have not in their own nature an enmity to the heavenly image of Christ which is Spirituality Or to the natural image of him which is morality It is again expresly told us in the connexion of this Scipture That the way to preserve this Vnity of the Spirit in the Body of Christ is by walking towards one another with all lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love And not by a proud haughty impatient peevish and angry imposing of our own Notions and modes of Religion upon them This may indeed be a mistaken piece of humone policy to serve our own Worldly interest upon Christianity but I am very sure there is nothing of the true Spirit of Christ in this temper not of a right endeavouring to keep the Vnity of his Spirit in such a proceeding How clear is it again from this Scripture That the bond of Peace has its strength and root not in an Unity of knowledge and uniformity of worship but in the Unity of a Divine Spirit As the sympathy and Vnion of all the members in the body arise from and is preserved by the Vnity of the Soul Whilst there is as great a difference in the Original make of Souls as of faces in the complexions of minds as of bodies whilst the variety of humane understandings is so great Whilst we are under the power of different tempers educations and interests several measures and degrees of light Whilst there is imperfection in our state negligence in our searchings after truth an envious one alwaies ready to sow Tares It is unreasonable to expect a proportion and analogy of Notions and Opinions among good men Whilst we are thus circumstanced there will be some otherwise minded Nor do I know any remedy in such a case but a mutual forbearance till God cleares up the matter of difference This forbearance cannot be more our Duty then it is our interest and necessity
of Rome Bricks but left them Marble Our Paradise was at first Earthly and fading Our Jesus hath prepared for us in himself an Heavenly unfading eternal Paradise When Caesar found Cato his Enemy slain by his own hand that he might not come into the power of the Conqueror Caesar spake these words over the dead body I envy thee Cato the glory of thy Death seeing thou didst envy me the glory of thy Life Poor man faln from the first Beauty and Blessedness lost in Death and Wrath come to Jesus Christ do not thorow unbelief deny to him the glory of restoring thy Beauty and Blessedness to thee better than at the first by restoring thee to the naked Bosom of Eternal Love and the Substantial Joys of eternal Life But now it is time to pass on to our second Discovery unto which all this hath been a preparation only We have seen the flourishing Earth of the first Man which is only as a sight in a Cross-bow or Gun to direct our Eye to the mark which is the Heaven answering to this Earth Blessed shall our Eyes be if they see this Heaven opening itself and the Lord coming down out of it with all its glories under his Feet and round about him 2. Heaven God in the brightness of his own Substance uncloathed of every garment appearing in the naked Beauties and Loves of his Divine Nature and Person this is the Heaven into which the Body of our Saviour ascendeth out of which it cometh as a Bride from the bosom of her Bridegroom as the Heavenly Eve from the side of her Heavenly Adam Beauty of his Beauty Love of his Love joyned to him inseparably in one Spirit and one eternal Glory This is the Heaven over the head of the shadowy Image the essential and eternal Image of the Father This is the Resurrection of our Jesus from the Dead this is the sweet and sacred Mystery of our Saviours death the opening of the shadow as a Grave in which the true Glory slept that this might come forth and as it riseth overspread the shadow as it overspreadeth it gather it up into itself which is the swallowing up of Death into the Victory and Triumph of Eternal Life the darkness of the shadow into the everblessed light of the beloved substance Our Love is never awakened or stirred up till himself please When the Beautiful and Acceptable time is come the true Glory which lieth buried in the shadow awakeneth by a mysterious touch upon the shadow rendeth it as a Vail then it looketh forth and springeth like the morning like the fair Moon like the pure Sun the Figure and the Life all shining together with one Glory in the Calm and clear day of Eternity I shall endeavour to explain and confirm this to you by one Scripture John 17. 5. Father glorify me with thy self with that Glory which I had with thee before the world was Our dying Saviour prayeth for his humane Nature and for his divine Nature only as it was united to and sympathised with his Manhood The God-Head in its own single state and simplicity is ever above all passion and so all prayer Jesus Christ prayeth to be glorified with the Father in that Soul and Body in which he was presently to be cruciâ—ied with Thieves that in these he may be there where the Father is that is in the high and holy place of Eternity to this end that in these he may partake of the glory of the Father there in Eternity Eternity is defined to be The possession of all good together and at once without any bound terminating it before or after or in any kind This is the high place of Eternity above all Time Change Succession or Division For this reason is our Lord said to be Higâ—er than the Heavens All Created Heavens are below Eternity They have Mâ—â—sures and Limits set to the Forms of their Beings and to their Durations which they caâ— not pass They are continually rouling thorow successive Changes As the Sealyeth all in Waves so do the Essences of the most great and glorious Creature consist of manifold and various Changes Jesus alone in His Manhood is ascended to the Height of Eternity above all Changes and in this Height of Glory He cometh the second time into the World when it is said to him Thou changest the Heavens as a Garment and they are changed But thy throne O God endureth for ever and ever Heb. 1. 8. 12. So the Lord Jesus expoundeth Himself in that prayer of His Father glorifie me with thy self with that Glory which I had with thee before the World was The Glory which Christ prayeth for in behalf of His Humanity is a Glory above the Creation For it was before the Creation The Glory of Christ's Humane Nature in the Resurrection from the Dead is a Glory in Fellowship with the Father with Him who was from the Beginning an Eternal Glory a Glory which is when yet the World is not a Glory which is the same while the World standeth before which the World is not a Glory which is when the World is no more Eternity hath neither Beginning nor End neither Succession nor Change We may now understand how Jesus Christ was with the Father before the World was 1. His Divinity was there For in that He and the Father are One 2 His Humanity was with the Father before the World Personally in its propeâ—â—â—rson For the Divinity is the Person in the Humanity 3. The Soul and Body of Christ were there in their Root in their Original in the Will of the Father which is Eternal Love in its unconfined Absoluteness in the Wisdom of the Father which is Eternal Beauty in its unlimited Greatness and Universal Comprehension They were also with the Father before the World in their glorified State For their Glory which is Themselves in Truth and Perfection is Eternal was before the World was Thus our Saviour in His Glorified Humanity is that Melâ—hisedech mentioned in the Hebrews c. 7. v. 3. without Beginning of Life or End of Dayes whose name is always I am Joh. 8. 58. which met Abraham with Bread and Wine when he came from the slaughter of the four Kings Blessed art thou when thy Jesus thus appeareth to thee in the Form and Glory of Melchisdech when He is known to thee by this His new and His old Name of Melchisedech the King and Priest of the most high God which liveth for ever livâ—th in Eternity above all Times past present or to come Thou who thus seest and embracest Him to thee He cometh with the Bread not of Angels but of God with the new Marriage-Wine of the Kingdom of God Upon these the Father your Beloved and you sup and Feast together while every One in Him is both the Guest and the Feast Blessed is he who in like manner thorowout the whole Mystical Body of our Saviour seeth that high and sweet piece of Divinity to be true which
every change lieth in the Person of our Beloved as a Mansion cut out of the Rock of Eternity in the flourishing Garden of Eden in the Paradise of the Divine Nature 3. Ground The Person of Christ hath passed thorow all Changes after an Unchangeable manner St Paul teacheth us that the Lord Jesus hath descended to the Nethermost parts of the Earth and ascended above all Heavens to this end that He might fill All Eph. c. 4. v. O that I had the tongue of the Learned the Learned with the Learning of the Holy that I could speak to you with Words taught by the Holy Ghost O that you had hearts to take in and understand more than I can express Jesus Christ our forerunner is gone into every Form of things from the Height of the God-Head above to the lowest Deeps of the Creature to this end that He might fill every Form of Things with the Unchangeable Fulness of His own Person in which All Fulness dwelleth together in a Spiritual and Divine Body He hath by this means filled every point of time with Eternity every spot of Earth with Heaven every Change on Earth in Time with the Unchangeableness of Heaven and Eternity St. Paul said to his Friends This I know that Bonds await me in every place But my life is not dear to me for the Testimony of Jesus A Believer in a contrary sense may say This I know that my Jesus in the fulness of Unchangeable Loves Beauties and Joys waiteth for me in every Change as a Spiritual Bridegroom in a Spiritual Bed of Loves which is ever green which hath a Perpetual Calm upon it and a Perpetual Spring Nothing therefore is dreadful or melancholy to me for the unchanged Pleasantness of my Jesus In the Eastern countreys they imbalmed the Dead Bodies within anoynted them without with costly Spices that they might be preserved from putrefaction and might have a sweet smell When the Woman in the Gospel poured forth a Box of pretious Spikenard upon the feet of Christ He said to some who were offended with the wast Trouble her not She hath done this against my burial The Lord intimated that this was a Sacrament dispensed by a Divine Hand representing for His Consolation this high and holy Mystery that Death and the Dead Body in the Person of Christ are so embalmed anoynted with the pretious Spikenard of the Eternal Spirit that the Dead Body is Incorruptible Immortal and Pleasant Death itself is a Flourishing Life a fragrant sweet-smelling Joy as it lyeth in and is filled with this Unchangeable Person O! with what a sweet Indifferency may we now walk thorow all the Changes of Life and Death when our Heavenly Spouse hath thus embalmed anoynted â—â—lled all with the Delights and Glories of His Unchangeable Person and Presence Use. 3. The Knowledge of the Lord Jesus in His Beauties sanctifieth and sweetneth our Life in this World our Death and Departure out of the World This Use hath Two Parts 1. Part The Opening of the Person of Christ upon us in His Spiritual Glories sanctifieth and sweetneth this Life There are three Principles of the Knowledge of Christ in His true and unchangeable State which will bring home His Heavenly Beauties warm and shining to your Hearts on this Earth by natural Deductions from each Principle 1 Principle This World in its pure Naturals is the Shadow which falleth from the Heavenly Body of Divine Glories in the Person of our Fair One. This hath been proved at large above Learn then from this Truth 4. Lessons 1. Lesson Live unconcerned in this World This Divine Lesson is taught us from Heaven by the Holy Ghost upon this Ground 1. Cor. 7. 29 30 31. But this I say Brethren the time is short It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none And they that wept as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they bought not they that use this world as not abusing it For the fashion of this world passeth away The Apostle here divideth all this World into 4. Heads 1. Relations 2. Passions 3. Possessions 4. Employments and Entertainments Solomon saith in one place Why shouldst thou set thine heart upon that which is not There is no real Difference between having a Husband Wife or Children and having none between being in Grief or Joy and being without Grief or Joy between having an Estate and having none between being in the height of all Employments or Entertainments and being out of all This world hath nothing real It is all a Shadow Seeing then the various States of things on Earth have no real Difference pass thou thorow all estates with a perfect indifference of Spirit in a constant calm Eccles. 1. This is an Expression of the Vanity of all things here One Generation goeth another cometh but the Earth standeth for ever The Scripture in several places makes this one of the Names of God The Earth the Ground out of which all Generations of Things arise and into which they return again Divines interpret that Land of the Living mentioned to be the Divine Nature In this let our Spirits be a Divine Earth standing for ever unmoved upon its own Center of Eternity while one change after another cometh and passeth away again The Holy Ghost presseth it upon us by three Arguments 1. This World is a Fashion a Figure only a Shadow The fashion of this world In having this world thou hast a Shadow The Substance is above Let the world in having thee have thy shadow only Let thine heart be in Heaven with Jesus Christ. 2. This world vanisheth as a shadow The fashion of this world passeth away The Colours in a Rain-bow are Appearances of Colours and no more made by the reflection of the Sun upon a dark and watery Cloud So they suddenly break up and are seen no more The Colours of a Flower upon its stalk in the Garden are real livâ—â—g and lasting Such is the difference between Things on Earth and Things in Heaven Nothing here hath either Substance or Root 3. This world is a flying shadow suddenly gone The time is short As the shadow upon a Dyal in a short Winter-day moveth swiftly passeth away presently the Sun being low and immediately going in or going down so is every condition every comfort in Flesh. This is the first Lesson 2. Lesson Live without care and with content Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand Be careful for nothing but in every thing by Prayer and supplication with Thansgiving let your requests be made known unto God Phil. 4. 5 6. You have in these words 1. A Precept for moderation Moderation is that measure of Things by which they are proportioned and tuned each to other so as to fall in and agree in one This is that which maketh Beauty in Sights and Musick in Sounds A contented frame
Glory In the Hebrew you may read every Thing as well as every One. So the Margin hath it every whit of it that is of the Temple uttereth Glory Such should we ever be as those who see the essence of Beauty who hear the Soul and Spirit of Musick who tast take in and feel the pure the primitive Life of all Sweetness and Joy in the Glory the God-Head itself inhabiting every part and point every passage motion of Things in this whole Creation as in a Temple How would our Persons and lives shine with a spiritual Lustre how sweet would the Musick of our Spirits and Conversation be if we did thus take up and bear this Natural Image as the Tabernacle and the Star of our God our Beloved Jesus Figures made by the Eternal Spirit to worship and enjoy him as St. Stephen speaketh Acts 7. 43. Eccles. 3. We read that there is to every thing a Season and a time to every purpose under Heaven v. 1. To be born and to die to plant and to pull up v. 2. To kill and to heal v. 3. To weep and to laugh v. 4. To love and to hate for war and for peace v. 8. He hath made every thing beautiful in his Time or in its Time v. 11. And whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever v. 14. In the Tabernacle and Temple every part every pin answered to the Pattern on the Mount which were the Heavenly Things themselves in the Spirit in Eternity All objects all actions in the Temple the Beasts the cutting their throats the taking off their skins the taking out their Entrails the cutting them in pieces the boyling the burning them were sacred Figures of Divine and Immortal Glories to which the Musick of the Levites round about upon the walls with their Instruments and voices kept time Thou O Man art set in this world as a Priest in this Temple Behold Both the Intellâ—ctual and the Bestial part in it Love and hatred War and Peace Joy and Grief Light and Darkness Weeping with Howlings Laughter with Shouts Life and Death with all that is delightful or dismal belonging to them all these Heavenly and Divine Mysteries Every one answereth to a purpose in the Heart of God to a Pattern in the Eternal and Essential Form of God Every one answereth to the Musick of the Holy Angels which stand in Quires in the uppermost parts of this Creation as the Levites upon the walls of the Temple The basest the bloodiest Persons and Offices those that kill and those that are killed bear the Figure of Jesus Christ like the Beasts for Sacrifice or the Sacrificing Priests in their linnen Garments stained with Blood Every thing is beautiful in his Time The Time of every thing is Divinely set by a Divine Pattern in a Divine Proportion by a Divine Power Thus each thing is cloathed with a double Beauty 1. The Divine Harmony of the Universal Image in Nature resulting from and resting upon each particular fitly set with a sacred proportion and contrivance in its own Time and in his Time that is by a Divine Hand in a Divine Time 2. An exact and ravishing Harmony with the Eternal Image of the supream Glories in God As line for line feature for feature colour for colour motion for motion from a Face in a Glass answer to the Beautiful Face which beholdeth itself in the Glass so is God and this world the Face in the water and the living Face Beauty itself by looking upon the water at once Figuring itself upon it and beholding itself in it all being reflections of its own Glorieâ— Obj. But you will say we see not now this resemblance of the Divine Glory in the face of the Creature Ans. What God doâ—h he doth for ever v. 14. As Jesus said to Peter of the washing his Feet What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter that may be applied here The work of God in this World and Time is for Heaven and Eternity to be understood and enjoyed there When we shall come into the presence of the Life and the Original then shall we look again with another manner of Eye upon the Picture and have an unexpressâ—ble pleasure to behold one in the other As the Tabernacle when its season was past was taken into the Temple So when Time and this world are past away Time and this world from the Beginning to the End shall be taken up into their first Patterns into Eternity God shall call every thing to the least dust or moment by its name and no one shall be wanting There shalt thou see the Beauty of the whole and of every part in the light and life of its Glorious Original Then shalt thou know what God hath done from the Beginning of the world to the End Thou shalt now possess and enjoy all with unexpressible pleasures when thou shalt thus meet them again in a new Light to be for ever with thee In the mean time as Christ said to Martha Believe and thou shalt see the Glory of God Thy Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life and that now and that within thee in thy Spirit John 1. 14. The Word was made Flâ—sh and dwelt tabernacled among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of Grace and Truth O Man O Christian open the Eye of thy understanding open the Eye of thy Faith see this world the Tabernacle the Temple of the Eternal Word behold all things full of the Grace and Glory of his Person in Shadows and Images formed by himself behold himself in the truth of all this Grace and Glory in that height of Glory which is proper to his own Person as he is the only begotten of the Father dwelling with thee in this Temple behind the Vail of every Shadow and Image Behave thy self as in the House of God Walk in the midst of all Creatures and Occurrences as in the midst of so many Divine Mysteries as a Priest in the Temple In purity in peace in wisdom in love bear in every state the Figure of thy Jesus and his Glories converse with it in every thing walk in it at all times See thy Glorified Jesus himself together with his shadow make him the mark of thine Eye and thine Heart terminate all the workings of thy Spirit upon him as the Truth and Substance So wait continually for the breakings forth of the glory as a Heavenly Flame thorow the Shadow upon thee to take thee up into itself And thou as thou ascendest carry up the Shadow with thee 4. Lesson Live abstracted from this world in the world Distinguish and separate thy self from the Natural Person Life and Image which are all the Shadow and no more that thou mayst stand in an Immortal Person a Life of Glory the Essential Image which is the Truth The Lord Jesus saith I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away For
if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send Him to you Joh. 16. 7. Jesus Christ in the Shadow in the Flesh is the Crucifier and the crucified Jesus Christ in the Substance in the Spirit is the Comforter and the Comforted How expedient is it for us in the midst of these Shadows to withdraw our selves into the Life and Truth that when all things there are dying upon the Cross all things here may be Comforters and Comforts which continue for ever The Lord Jesus saith to the Father Sacrifice and Burnt-offering thou wouldest not have but a Body hast thou prepared me that is to be offered up in the place of all Sacrifices Hâ—b 10. 1. We read v. 1. that the Law hath a Shadow only of good things to come Jesus and all His Members have the Shadowy Body of this Natural Man and the First Creation fitted for them only to sacrifice themselves in these to the Eternal Truth that thus they may return on high into That All Shadows are under the Law The Law hath Shadows only of Good things to come All Sacrifices are under the Law The Gospel is a Feast Spirit and Life How wise how blessed is he who gathereth himself up entirely out of Nature and Flesh into the Invisible Glory of the Spirit In which while Flesh is suffering as a Sacriâ—ice by Fire he seeth all Flesh Suffering and Sacrifices to be Shadows only Shadows of Immortal Joys and Himself already in those Joys triumphing over and comprehending those Shadows in the Beautiful and Blessed Truth These are the Lessons from the First Principle which was that this World in its pure Naturals falleth as a Shadow from the Glorified Person of our Saviour 2. Principle The Presence and Appearance of the Person of our Lord Jesus and His Glory is withdrawn from the faln and corrupt World The Devil is called in the Scriptures The Prince of Darkness and The Prince of this World This World the World in this faln state is Darkness Darkness is the Privation of Light The absence of the Sun from the Earth is the Cause of Darkness Our Saviour in Glory is the Light the Sun of the whole Creation While He goeth away with His Beams into a far countrey to shine in the Invisible World He leaveth all behind Him in the Dark Three Lessons naturally flow from this second Principle 1. Lesson Believe not any Appearances of things in this World Darkness in the language of the Holy Ghost signifieth Deceit The Lord Jesus saith of Himself I am the Truth Truth hath lest the World together with Jesus Christ. Blessed is he who having the Possessions or Powers of this World in his Hand the Smile or Frowns of it before his Eyes the Griefs or Joys of it in his Heart can with a good assurance say Have I not a Lye in my Hand and in my Heart Are not the Apparitions of the Devil the Father of Lyes before me 2. Lesson Love not the things of this World James 4. 4. Ye adulterers and Adulteresses know ye not that the Friendship of this World is enmity with God It is not now the Seed of the Woman which is a Divine Loveliness and Love in the Person of our Heavenly Bridegroom which springeth up in all the Forms and Fruits of this World Yet a little while saith He to the World and ye shall see me no more No! It is the Seed of the Serpent in Deformity and Enmity in a Contrariety to all Spiritual Beauty Goodness and Truth which groweth up every where Your Love to any part of this World is Unclean and Adulterous By it you leave the pure and sweet embraces of your own Glorious Husband to ly down infolded in the treacherous Twinings of the old Serpent the Dragon 3. Lesson Walk not after the Fashion of this World Rom. 12. 2. Be not conformed to this World While the Lord Jesus was with this World it was His Shadow He figured His Beauties upon it He acted it with His Spirit His Name was as an Ointment poured out upon it He spake to us and conversed with us there But now when He is absent the beautiful Figure is gone the Darkness with all its confusions and cursed Fruits remain The Spirit of Darkness ariseth in it with all his Hellish Forms of Deceit Defilement and Wrath If thou cloath thy Spirit with any Worldly Image thou puttest on a filthy Garment which will pollute thee thou puttest on a fiery garment which hathâ— the burning poysons of Hell hidden in it which will cleave inseparably to thee torturing and consuming thee with a hidden inward and uâ—quenchable flame This is the Second Principle 3. Principle Jesus Christ hath reconciled all things hath gathered up all things into One hath made all things New with the Spiritual and Eternal Glory of the Father as the World standeth in the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead and in His Glorified Person as a New Head to it with a New Name Lesson You then that are Christ's live victoriously and triumphantly in this World Abide in your Head â—There you see all this World lying conquered captivated comprehended in a new and endless World of Life Love and Glory Rom. 5. We rejoyce saith St. Paul v. 2. And not onely so but we glory in tribulation v. 3. Because the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy Ghost given unto us v. 5. O Christians live in Joy Live in Glory live in perpetual Triumph For by the Resurrection and Ascension of your Jesus the bitterest Enmities the blackest Extremities are Forms Floods of Light and Love in that Sea of Light and Love the Holy Ghost breaking forth from the sweet and glorious Deep of the God-Head in the Heart of the Father Rom. 8. v. 57. In all these things famine nakedness sword mentioned before we are more than conquerours through Him that loved us v. 58 59. For nothing life nor death nor Angels things present nor things to come nor height nor depth shall be able to sparate us from the love of god wlâ—â—â— is in Christ Jesus Dear Soul dwell for ever in this good Land of Life and Love thy Saviour in the Spirit Nothing here can separate thee from the Divine Love Every thing then that cometh to thee in life or in death must come in that Element of Love it must come in a Lovedress it must be Love itself in a Lovely Form Every thing that toucheth thee here must touch thee with the Heavenly kisses and Embraces of Divine Love Otherwise there would be a Separation between Love and thee In thy glorified Jesus is the Love of God that Love which is God the God-Head of Love O blessed Habitation O Happy and Heavenly Countrey thine own Countrey indeed What so much our own what so near us so much One with us as Love Here Love in its God-Head filleth all in Spiritual Forms in Forms of Glory and of God
O glorious Victory O Saints more than Conquerours in the Resurrection of your Saviour The World is faln before you it is no more The old things of Vanity Darkness Sin Sorrow Death are passed away in His Death Thus you are conquerours But in His Resurrection the World is raised again in a Form of Eternal Love and Glory for you All things are come again and are made New All things appear again the second time Immortal Spirits shining in the Loveliness burning in the Love of the God-Head for you opening all things past present and to come in themselves as Beautiful and Sacred Mysteries of Divine Love to you which ever is Delighting it self in You sporting with you preparing Joys Glories for you Thus you are more than Conquerous through Him who hath loved You. Live then in Him Joyfully gloriously Triumphantly I have done with the first Part of my last Use the Sweeâ—ning and Sanctifying Life in this World 2. Part. To sweeten and sanctifie Death by the Knowledge of Christ in Glory I shall lay down three Principles to this End 1. Principle Every Saint standeth â—compleat in Glory in the Glorified Person of Christ above even while he is living or dying here below Ye are compleat in Him who is the Head of all Principality and Power Col. 2. 10. In the verse before the Lord Jesus was described as in Him dwelleth all the Fulness or Compleatness of the God-Head bodily v. 9. Then this is added And in Him ye are compleat or full who is the Head of all Principality and Power A Believer is compleat in his Saviour as He hath the Compleatness of the God-Head in him and the Compleatness of all the Angels beneath him His Life then and His Death as they stand in Jesus Christ are more than Angelical They are Divine I shall endeavour to set in lively Figures before your Eyes the Beauty and Sweetness in the Death of a Saint by four Scriptures 1. Script And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. v. 6. What is to be understood by together is plain in the verse before hath quickned us together with Christ It is God who doth all this as is seen v. 4. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us Four Positions lye clear in this Scripture 1. Pos. A Believer is risen from the Dead He dieth no more He is passed from Death to Life As Abraham is said to have received Isaac from the Dead in a Figure So the Beloved of the Lord dâ—eth onely in a Figure Death is to him a Divine Figure standing in the Resurrection from the Dead His Death is a Flower of Life and Immortality growing up in the Paradise of God which is the Glorified Person of Jesus It beareth indeed the Figure of Death but is full of a Sweetness and Beauty which can never fade or dye Let us all labour for our part in the New Birth This is a Resurrection from the Dead All things after it are Life Pure Life without any mixture of Death Perpetual Life Endless Life without any Sting of Death in the tail of it 2. Pos. A Believer is already sâ—t down in Heavenly places nay more than Heavenly The Word Heavenly is by some translated and so it properly signifieth Supercoelestial more than Heavenly places above the Heavens Here a Saint is made to sit down He is fixed and established He is at rest at home at the end of all his journeyings and changes He is set as a Bride at the Marriage-feast He is set as a Prince upon the Throne of his Kingdom Thus God giveth His Beloved Sleep Rest a Feast a Throne in Death Jesus Christ in Glory is this Sleep this Rest this Feast this Throne which endureth for ever and ever O Christian rejoyce and glory in Death for the Hope of the Joy and Glory of thy Bridegroom there Thy Death hath nothing of Dust or Darkness in it It is a Heavenly Thing nay more than Heavenly It is something Supercoelestial It is a soft Strain and ravishing Touch in the Musick of the Divine and Eternal Rest. It is a savoury Dish such as thy soul loveth at the Feast in the Kingdom of God Solomon had a throne of Gold On the Steps which were the Ascents to the Throne on each side were Lyons of pure Gold Thy Death O Saint is now no more a fierce and devouring Lyon to affright thee It is the figure of a Lyon in Gold in one Glory It is not onely an Ascent to thy Throne O Jedidiah Beloved of the Lord It is One Piece of Eternal Glory with thy Throne It is an Ornament an Embâ—â—llishment of Glory to thy Throne How good is it for those who are born of God to keep themselves pure that they may alwaies see God that they may see all things to them Divine Objects in a Divine Light sparkling Jewels of Divine Love We are ever in the midst of these things which are more than Heavenly in the midst of these Supercoelestials even in the arms of Death While we keep our selves unspotted from this world we see these Supercoelestials and Death itself in the number of them But every sin casteth a mist upon them and covereth us with a Cloud that we see them no more Now the Visions of our Joy and Glory of Light and Truth are hid from our Eyes Now fear and trembling are upon 〈◊〉 Life is full of Trouble and Death full of Terrour 3. Pos. A Saint is set down in Heavenly places together with Jesus Christ. The sweetning and the heightning of all the Joys and Glories of the Gospel is the Union with thy Beloved Bridegroom The work of Grace is a Birth a Resurrection a Marriage all in one The Death of a Saint is an Act of Spiritual Communion between Christ and the Soul a Marriage-Joy The Lord Jesus presenteth himself to the Believer in the Form of Death as in a Heavenly a Supercoelâ—stial Beauty At this sight the Saint is immediately transformed into the same Image Jesus Christ springeth up into the Believer a Believer springeth up into his Beloved in this Heavenly Form So both are made one in it Thus Death becometh a Love-play between Christ and his Spouse He by a Spiritual Kiss breatheth forth his Spirit of Divine Loves Immortality and Invisible Glories into the Spouse The Spouse ravished sorth from her self again in the same moment breatheth forth her Spirit into the Bosom of her Lord. Thus they die together they die one in another they die one into another In the first of the Canticles there is a Prophetical Song which beginneth at the Resurrection of our Saviour and the Effusion of the Spirit together with the Spiritual Union between Christ and his Church which was as their Heavenly Espousals solemnized and sealed with a Kiss with the reiterated Kisses of his Mouth Then followeth in the process of the first
already said in order to my present purpose to shew how the knowledge of Christ in Glory sanctifieth and sweetneth Death 1. Obser. Here are three distinct Frames 1. A Building v. 1. 2. A Tabernacle v. 1. v. 4. Where take notice that in both places it is translated this Tabernacle but is in Greek the Tabernacle 3. The Earthly House v. 1. This seemeth to allude to the Temple which was a standing stately Building set up by Solomon in the Kingdom of the Jews to the Tabernacle in the Wilderness which was less and moveable but rich and â—ine for the Workmanship and for the Materials to the Tent of course stuff a covering â—or the Tabernacle All these were Figures of Christ and his Church to which they are also applied 1. The Heavenly Person of Christ as it standeth in the high and holy place of Eternity as it springeth up out of the Bosom of the Father and abideth in his Bosom as it is one Spirit and one Glory with the Father is the Temple the Building For the Building hath this Three-fold Character 1. It is of God in Greek out of God as Gold is out of a Mine of Gold 2. It is Eternal 3. It is in the Heavens The Glorified Person of every Saint as it is comprehended in this Glorious Head of all Saints is a Temple a Building in Heaven in Eternity of the same manner and fashion 2. The Tabernacle made of Sky-colour of Scarlet of Purple of fine Linnen with Silver and Gold and all manner of precious stones wrought with Cherubims and all curious Workmanship is the Image of God in Christ and a Saint here below in the Wilderness of this World John 1. 14. And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt in Greek Tabernacled among us and we beheld his Glory the Glory as of the onely Begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth Here you have the Temple which is higher greater in compass and more glorious than the Heavens contracting itself into a Tabernacle and residing in that Tabernacle filling it with its own Sweetnesses and Glories which are Grace opposed to Wrath Truth opposed to Shadows The Word was made Flesh. The Eternal and Substantial Image of God which is the Temple the true Heaven brought forth itself into a Temporary and Shadowy Image which is the Tabernacle and the Paradise of the whole Creation As it is in the Lord Jesus so is it in his Spouse who is the Fulness of him that silleth All in All. This vile Body in which a Saint is here this dark and course Form with which our Souls and Bodies are cloathed here is the Tent that covereth the Tabernacle the Earthly House of the Tabernacle 2. Obser. The Effect of Death is different in these Three 1. The Tent the Earthly House onely is dissolved It is dissolved and no more It is taken to pieces The Word belongeth to the taking down of a house or the taking of Horses out of the Coach and setting them up in a stable at an Inn when the day and the Journey are ended The Dark and Narrow Form which made it a Vile Body a Body of Death is lost The Materials are laid up in the Tabernacle 2. The Tabernacle is taken into the Temple This is that which shall be cloathed upon from Heaven v. 2. If so be that being cloathed or as it is in Greek if having been cloathed namely with the Tabernacle we shall not be found naked of the Tabernacle in Death v. 3. So it is explained in the words following For we that are in the Tabernacle do groan being burthened not that we should be uncloathed of the Tabernacle but cloathed upon that Mortality might be swallowed up of Life that the Form of Mortality might be lost for ever in Immortality and the Mortal Things continue being now become Immortal When thou puttest on Jesus Christ thou puttest on that Image of Grace and Nature in which Paraâ—ise is revived and heightned in which is contained all that is good fair and pleasant thorow the whole Creation quickned with a new Sun-shine from on high This thou puttest on in thy Natural Man This thou shalt never put off after that thou hast once been cloathed with it It is still cloathed upon with a higher and higher Glory from Heaven until in Death the Glorified Body of Christ come down entirely upon it in the fulness of all its Divine Beauties 3. The Eternal Building in Heaven thy Glorified Person which was hither to hid in God with and in the Glorified Person of thy Saviour now cometh down cloatheth thee entirely resteth openly upon thee never to go off from thy Tabernacle more 3. Observ. See the beautiful and sweet manner of Dying Death is expressed in Two Representations 1. A Dissolution 2. A Deluge a Swallowing up 4. Death is a Dissolution If our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved v. 1. A Troop of everblessed Spirits united by Eternal Love into one Form of Glory make the Heavenly Body of thy Beloved In the same Form and yet another they make thy Heavenly Body and Person in the Bosom of thy Bridegroom O Believer These descending are by the sacred knot of this dark and narrow Form in Nature tied together into One Mortal Person in which they are the Shadow of themselves and tied down to the Earth to stand their Tryal in the midst of all sorts of Temptations Thus they continue till they have finished the Mystery of God and compleated the Figure of Divine Things in their Persons here below Then when the set Time is come according to the Laws of that Eternal Harmony in the Nature of God which is the Supream Love Beauty and Wisdom all in One they dye after this manner That Troop of glorious Spirits which is Thy-Self above come down upon Themselves Thy Self imprisoned in their Shadow below As the Fire of God they touch with some Mysterious Stroak of Providence the knot of this Earthly Form Immediately it untieth and is dissolved Now all these Spirits thus set free retaining the Unchangeable Unity of thy Person return Each to Itself in the Liberty Beauty Joy and Glorious Majesty of its proper Substance and It s own Its First Heavenly State Yea they are already there in their Building Eternal in the Heavens This Eternal Building these Heavens come down upon them to cloath them from above that in no one moment they may be found naked At once they spring up out of the Earth they come down out of Heaven and meet and kiss each other and fall into One with a Wonderful Shout a Triumphant Concurrence of all Blessed Spirits in the Perfect Freedom of all their Joys and Glories They fall into One because they are One and this One is Thy self In an Instant the Twinkling of an Eye the Living Word cometh to them the knot of Nature is dissolved all fly this knot the Figure itself the Shadow like Doves to their Windows like a Court to their
his Glory in Heaven Now there is no Solitude in the Unity which maketh Paradise a Wilderness the Unity is the true Paradise within itself springing up into variety then marrying itself to it and so flourishing from this Union with all manner of Beautiful and pleasant Fruits By this Birth and Distinction in the Unity Adam and Eve are capable of enjoying themselves each in other and of multiplying themselves Thirdly Eve is brought to Adam again and these two are made one Flesh. This is the making of two one again which were first made two of one This Unity in the Distinction and Distinction in the Unity is that Marriage in Paradise which is the Type of that Incomprehensible Marriage above all Heavens which is the Third Person in the Trinity In him the Father and the Son spend Eternity in mutual Embraces and multiply themselves into an Infiniteness of Blessed Lives Blessed Loves You that are Married Persons see your selves in this double Glass of Paradise and the Trinity By these Glasses dress your selves in your Loveliness and Loves one for another St. Paul saith that Marriage is Honourable among all or in all things A Type hath a double Honour the Figure which is Shadowy the Truth which is a substantial Glory Husbands and Wives preserve the Honour of your state at least in the shadowy part Bear the Figure of the Ever-glorious Trinity whose Type you are by a mortal Beauty Truth Purity Sweetness which are the Gold and precious Mettal in the Ring of this Love-union This will make Marriage an Earthly Paradise But rest not in this You will find a Serpent here that will quickly poyson all your Sweets and change your Flowers into Thorns if you pass not thorow the Earthly into the Heavenly Paradise Then you wear the Marriage-Crown in Truth when that Spirit which is the Band of Love between the Father and the Son is the Eternal Band of Divine Love between you also when you also make your Marriage-Bed in the Bosom of the Holy Ghost What Joys what an Immortal Off-spring is born of those Lovers where the Love-fellowship of these below and the sacred Love-fellowship of the Blessed Trinity above descend and ascend one into another where they mingle themselves Universally 3. Love-Union in the Soul Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit The Divine Being Life and Form of the Soul in which it is a Spirit lie first wrapt up in the Unity of the Eternal Spirit its Heavenly Mother above The Eternal Spirit out of this Love-Center and within the Love-Circle of its own Unity by the New-birth in the Soul bringeth forth at once a Daughter-Spirit a Sister and Spouse to itself This Divine Spirit like the Paradisical Eve so soon as it is born of its Heavenly Adam is brought to him again and they Two are made one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. As a New-born Babe so soon as it is sprung out of the Womb seeketh the Breast of the Mother that it may suck forth a continued stream of Life from the Fountain of its Life so is it in the Spiritual Birth So soon as the New-born Spirit ariseth up out of this Unity which is the Womb of the God-Head it is immediately received into the Arms of this Unity it desireth after it hunteth for it returneth to it fastneth upon this Unity which is the Breast of the God-Head By this it draweth in the sincere and pure Milk of the living Word it taketh in by plentiful streams the Light Life Glory Substance of the Divine Nature to grow by them O you who indeed 〈◊〉 born of this Unity lie continually in the Bosom of it hang continually upon this Breast But thus as in the Eternal Generation in Heaven as in the Creation in Paradise as in the Regeneration which is the opening of Paradise and Heaven both a second time in the Soul all are Love-Births Love-Unions The Unity distinguisheth itself within itself into another self which is yet still the same that there may be a variety in the Unity without the breach of the Unity The Virgin above bringeth forth a Son which is also her Lord and continueth a Virgin still The Beautiful variety which is the Effulgeâ—cy of the Unity rejoyneth itself again to it and still remaineth a variety in its distinction from it Thus the Love-Marriage is every where solemnized and every where maketh a Paradise and a Heaven above and below This is the first Description of Divine Love a Divine Union where one Glorious Spirit is made two and these two make themselves one again Use. Learn from the Beauty and Sweetness of Divine Love the Evil of this Worlds Love by their contrariety to it Ye Adulterers and Adulteresses Know ye not that the Friendship of this World is Enmity to the Father Who therefore is this World's Friend is an Enemy to God James 4. 4. See the Evil of this World's Love in 3. Steps 1. Step By loving this World you separate yourselves from the Love of God You estrange your selves from all true Joy Peace and Rest. For these are the Attendants and Companions of Divine Love Cant. 3. 7 8. You read of Solomon's Bed which hath fourscore valiant menos the valiant men of Israel round about it with their swords girt upon their thigh for the fear of the night How great how Divine is the Sweetness the Safety the Security of Spiritual Love He that abideth in this Love enjoyeth an Uninterrupted Rest and untroubled pleasures in a Night of the greatest Darkness Dangers Tumults and Storms He hath ever round about Him a Troop of Holy Angels for his Guard armed with the Glorious Power of the Spirit This is the Sword upon their Thigh In the midst of these he lyeth upon a Royal Marriage-bed Here he is encircled with the Spiritual Embraces of King Solomon the Lord Jesus in Glory the King of all Peace Perfections and Pleasures This is the Love of God that Love by which God and the Soul live and dwell together in One Spirit You now who prefer the blackness of darkness before the Beauty of Christs Face restless cares endless fears continual dangers and deaths before the Rest and Joys of Christ's bosom love this world and let the love of Jesus Christ go 2. Step. By the Love of this World you make your selves Adulterers with a Witch and a Common Whore Poor Soul thou forsakest the Arms of thine own Love thy Loving Roe and pleasant Hind the Wife of thy Youth of Eternal Youth the Heavenly Image in the Person of the Lord Jesus Thou givest thy self up to the Embraces of the strange Woman the Strumpet this World the Fleshly Image of Things The Love of your Saviour is all Truth Purity Peace Immortality The Love of this World beginneth in Deceit hath its Power in Enchantments its Effect Pollutions its End Destruction She giveth thee Drink indeed in a Golden Cup. But she maketh thee to drink in first a Wine of Sorceries
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
fitted and filled up only with the Truth of that Type those Three ever-blessed Persons as their Seal in the noblest mettal next themselves it contains more expresly more at large and more gloriously all those Figures and Draughts of Divinity which are imprinted upon the Face of any Creature O the inestimable Treasures of Mans Natural Heart if Sin change it not from a Palace of Angels to a Prison of Devils or a Grave 2. There is a Spiritual Heart 1 Corin. 6. 16. He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit Mark the Absoluteness and Universality of the expression one Spirit He who is joyned to the Lord Jesus by believing is one Spirit with Christ one Spirit in Christ one Spirit as Christ is one Galat 3. 19 20. St. Paul thus distinguisheth between the Law and the Gospel The Law was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one but God is one There is a Twofold Mediator one who hath his Ground in the Distance and his End to maintain the Distance between Two Parties The other is founded in an Unity and his work is to manifest and make perfect this Unity The Character of the Law is Duality and Division God and the Creature are presented each to other as two upon different Principles treating on a Covenant of works containing different Terms to be performed by each apart In the Gospel God reveals himself as he is One as he is the Ground the Object the End of all his affections and operations as he comprehends himself and the Creature in one Person and in one Spirit in our Lord Jesus as he loves the Creature with the same love with which he loves himself and beholds it in the same Glory with which he beholds himself in Christ. This is the Covenant of Grace in which the Lover and the Beloved are both One You may now ask me two Questions Q. 1. How God is One Q. 2. How a Believer is one Spirit Q. 1. How is God One An. God is one four wayes 1. He is perfect He comprehends all parts of Excellency in every kind and degree Essentially in one supream and undivided Point of Being within himself He is to himself the Eye the Light and the Object the Love the Loveliness the Joy and Fruit of both all in One. The most curious Composition of all Sweets in one Ointment or Perfume The most natural extraction of the vertues of all herbs and flowers into one Sweetness in Hony falls infinitely short of the Unity of all Perfections here and the Perfection of this Unity 2. God is Pure There is no mixture in him As they say of Gold the purest Mettal It is plenum sui full of itself so is God in the highest sense Every grain of pure Gold is Gold Every thing in God is God There is no mixture Division Allay or Bound The Divine Nature is endlesly compleat and entire within itself like a Sea of unshaded Light which hath no shore or Bottom God is Light and in him is no darkness 2 John 1. 5. 3. God is unchangeable He is the Rock unmoveable He is the Rock of ages All successions of Time like Waters of a River pass by him and behold him through all revolutions fixt in the same place and State He is the Rock of Eternity As Wheels turning round in a Cave within a great Rock So all the Times and Changes of this World are comprehended within the Unchangeableness and Eternity of his Essence 4. God is the Fountain He is not a Broken Barren but a perfect and pregnant Unity Rom. 9. 36. Of him and Through him and To Him are all things to whom be Glory for ever As all numbers are a Unity multiplied so are all things various Sparklings of this Divine Unity Emanations and Manifestations of the same God presenting himself to us at sundry times and in divers manners Love is defined to be Partus in pulchro a Birth in a Beauty This is the true nature of things that Divine Love which is the Birth of all Varieties of and in this Beautiful this Blessed Unity 2. Q. How is a Believer one Spirit 1. That One Eternal Spirit brings forth the Spirit of a Saint as his own immediate proper and Peculiar Birth as the dear Reflection of himself A Saint is the Workmanship of Jesus Christ not as a Picture is of a Painter but as a Child is of the Father one Spirit one Life one Divine Nature is in Both. 2. This one Spirit begets and brings forth the Spirit of a Saint in his own likeness Rom. 8. 29. God hath predestinated us to be conformed to the Image of his Son that is to his heavenly Image as he is the quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45 49. The Lord Jesus is our Father the Father of the new World the New Birth in us as he is the Heavenly one that Spirit which is the supream Unity the Lord and Fountain of Life and Spirits So he brings us forth in the Image of the same Heavenly Form and of the same Divine Unity Thus he prays to his Father John 17. 22. The Glory which thou gavest to me I have given to them that they may be One as we are One. Behold the Divine Birth of a Saint the Divine Likeness into which he is born and the Divine Unity the Ground and Form of the Divine Birth and Likeness 3. The Eternal Spirit unites itself to the Spirit of a Believer thus regenerated in the most Intimate Entire and Inseparable manner They mutually inhabit fully possess perfectly enjoy each other In life and death time and eternity they are undivided Thus this Heavenly Adam the Unity and Fountain of Spirits casts himself into the sleep of Humane Life and of Death that he may bring forth from his Side and his Bosom this Sister-Spirit this true Eve the Mother of all Living of all Heavenly and Spiritual Lives as he is the Father Then when he awakens in the Resurrection from the Dead he takes her to be his Spouse as she is his Sister in the Fellowship of the Divine Unity which is the glorious Ring and Circle of all Relations So she who is Spirit of his Spirit in the likeness of the same Spirit is made one Spirit with him Thus you have an Answer to these two Questions You see how God is One How he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit O that men knew God unvailed revealed in the Light and Grace of the Gospel as he is One O that they they did rellish the Sweetness of this Unity of the Spirit which is the height of all Relations by which God is one to a Believer in all times and things one in him one with him by which he also is one to in and with God! This sight and sense would make us to be continually in Pangs of longings to be regenerated and brought forth into this Spirit and Unity as Jesus Christ is