Individual and Substantial Body of mine as it was in Flesh the Other the awakening of Spiritual Senses in you the Shining forth of my Glorified Body and my Divinity by their own Light upon these thorow this Sign of my Natural Body reassumed for this Service But now beware that you make not this Sign a Stumbling-block to you to make you think me now like your selves and such a one as formerly I was to have a body of an Earthly Substance or Figure consisting of Flâ—sh and Bones No the Days of my Flesh are past I was put to Death in my Flesh and to the Flesh I am now quickened by the Spirit to live for ever in the Spirit A Spirit hath not Flesh nor Bones as you see me now to have This seemeth to be something of our Saviours sence in this place St. Paul Rom. 8. 6. saith To be carnally-minded is Death but to be spiritually-minded is Life and Peace The Greek word comprehendeth an Act of both the Faculties of our Souls our Understanding and our Will To look upon things in their Fleshly Forms to savour and rellish a Fleshly Sweetness in things is Death To see things in their Spiritual Appearances to savour and rellish them in a Spiritual Sweetness This is Life and Peace which is the Harmony the Musick the Crown of Life When the Disciples looked down into the Grave for Jesus Christ the Angels reproved them saying Why seek ye the Living among the Dead He is not here He is risen He is gone before you into Galilee as Himself spake unto you The Flesh was our Saviour's Grave and is still the Grave of the Spirit All Forms and Beauties of the Flesh are Grave-cloaths bound about Him Let us no more seek the Living and Immortal Person of our Beloved nor His Living and Immortal Beauties which are all Spirit and Life among the Dead things of the Flesh. He is not here in Flesh any more He is risen and gone before us into the Spirit Let us follow Him thither I have done with the First Rule to direct us in the Knowledge of the Person of Christ Spiritual Things are to be discerned Spiritually Rule 2. Spiritual Things are to be compared with Spiritual 1 Cor. 2. 13. The Holy Ghost teachâ—th comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual This Rule bringeth me to the Mark and White which I aim at That I may hit it the more exactly I must â—ix a while upon that Scripture 1 Cor. 15. 35. and so forward I lay this Groundwork for the Building which I intend to raise upon this Scripture The set Design of the Apostle here is to discourse of the Resurrection of the Body He therefore frameth this Question to himself which containeth the Great Subject of his whole Discourse in this place How are the dead raised up and with What Body do they come v. 35. In answer to this question he treateth of the Bodies of the Saints in general of the Body of Christ in particular as the Root and Rule of the Resurrection to all the rest Upon this ground I shall raise three Propositions as three Stories in my Building which will take in the greatest part of St. Pauls words upon this Subject in this Scripture Prop. 1. The Body of Christ risen from the Dead is not to be compared with the Body of Christ living upon the Earth or Dying St. Paul likeneth by a large similitude the living Body to a Seed the Body raised to a perfect Plant sprung up out of that Seed v. 36. 37 38. St. Paul maketh expresly three Differences 1. The Life of the one is a Death compared to the life of the other and so the world in which it is a Grave to that Image of things in the Resurrection v. 36. That which thou sowest is not quickned except it die 2. They differ as two several Bodies for Substance and Shape Thou sowest not that Body that shall be v. 37. 3. One is as bare Grain naked dark deformed little slight the other hath a Body a Substantial Beautiful Distinct fulness It hath a Form of Light and Beauty proportions of greatness and magnitude a fulness of Substance It hath a Divine Body a Body drawn forth from the Treasury of the God-Head God giveth it a Body v. 38. It is a Body a Form and Fulness sprung forth from the Divine Wisdom and Will bearing the Glorious stamp of these in which themsâ—lves rest with a full Complacency God giveth it a Body 〈◊〉 himself pleaseth v. 38. It is also to the Seed it s own Body and to every Seed it s own Body v. 38. As John the Baptist saith of Jesus Christ he is perfer'd before me because he was before me as in the purity and Paradise of the Creation the perfect Plants were first in the Fulness of their Beauty and Fruit bearing their Seed in them so in the Paradise of Eternity before the World which is Christ the Word the Wisdom of God the Immortal the Glorious the Divine Bodies and Forms of things were first as the Flourishing Tree comprehending in themselves the Bodies and Forms of Flesh as Shadows or naked Seeds hid in the Light or Bosom of the beautiful Substance and Fruit. Then came forth the Earthly Forms of things into the State of this Creation These are Shadows under which the Divine Substances are vailed These are Seeds in which the Tree itself lieth hid as a Divine Mystery By the breaking up of these Shadows and the dying of these Seeds the Immortal Bodies and Glorious Substances themselves spring forth thorow them So every Seed hath its own Body in the Resurrection 1. It is that Body of Glory in which it lay and to which it relateth as its Divine Original or first Idea in the mind and will of God 2. It is that which lay hid virtually in it 3. It is that which springeth up out of it and changeth it into itself Thus the Body of our Lord risen is the same Body in relation to the same Idea or Pattern in God to the same Soul to which it is joyned as its proper Form in the Person of Christ to the same first Matter out of which it is taken God giveth it a Body as it hath pleased him and to every Seed it s own Body v. 38. My Brethren what joy is it to think that the Body of our loving and beloved Jesus that our own Bodies that the Bodies of our dearest Relations and delights lose nothing of themselves in Death yea are much more themselves by Death in the Resurrection as a man awake is much more himself than in a Dream a King upon his Throne than in the Grave and Tomb We shall lose nothing of our selves nor of our distinction But I fear I go to far for common understandings to follow me I will therefore conclude this Proposition with a plain representation of the Truth to you As the thing figured exceedeth the figure so the difference between the Body of our
Creature is in Christ as in the Excellency of the Divine Strength in its Divine Root Power Life Vertue as in the Excellency of the Divine Dignity in its Divine Form Beauty and Fruit. As our Lord Jesus is the Image of the Invisible God so the whole Creation lieth in him as in a Glorious Fountain-Head in a Beautiful Womb in a Beautiful Pattern in one entire Form of Beauty As our Lord Jesus is the First-born of every Creature so each Creature is seen distinctly in Him and he appeareth distinctly in each Creature in its Primitive Pure Paradisical State In the next place you have this General drawn down into Particulars the Heaven and the Earth the Visible the Invisible things of the Creature Angels with all their Orders all comprehended in the Light of Christ's Beauties like the living Creatures in the White Sheet let down out of Heaven to St. Peter as he prayed on the top of the house All are For By In Him v. 17. Lastly For a close you have all the Forms of Nature like Flowers of Silk in a Garment of Needle-work shining together in the Person of Christ v. 19. We read in the latter part of that verse All things subsist by him It is in Greek word for word All things have subsisted together in him As Beams of Light stand in the Sun and out of the Sun such a Sun is Jesus Christ such a Visible Image of the Invisible God at the Head of the Creation in which and out of which all the Creatures stand like a Bright and mysterious knot of Millions of Distinct Beams As a great and fresh Picture taken from the Life made up of many less Pictures which stand in it of which several Copies are taken from itself and Copy from Copy So is our Beloved the first born of every Creature in which all the Creatures subsist together in their proper Distinctions and their Universal Harmony After this first Circuit of Nature St. Paul passeth to the second Circuit of Grace v. 18. Here also all things appear in Christ as their first Principle and their proper Habitation Jude The Garden of All the distinct Root and Flower of each Spiritual Plant. He is the Head of the Church the Beginning the Principle the first-born from the Dead Both these Circuits St. Paul bringeth into one Divine Circle of Christ's Glorious Person like two distinct and pleasant Apartments one excelling the other in Riches Greatness and Beauty within the same Palace in which all the pleasures of the God-Head and of the Father lie For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell v. 19. Thus we see how St. Paul bringeth all fulness through all Generals and Particulars of things every where into Jesus Christ like the Silver and Gold out of all the Mines of Nature and Grace refined and fashioned by the Hand of a curious Workman the Divine Spirit into one Jewel Behold All Fulness the Fulness of all kinds and Degrees All Fulness the Fulness of all Things Invisible and Visible Angels and Men Heaven and Earth Flesh and Spirit God and the Creature All Fulness the Fulness of all States Light and Darkness Honour and Dishonour Pain and Pleasure the Griefs of all Sufferings the Joy of all Glories the deepest Guilt of Sin the brightest Crown of Righteousness He was made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Life Death the Resurrection from the Dead Immortality The Earth with its nethermost parts the Heavens with all the Heights above them in a word Love and Wrath with all their Changes and Dresses All Fullness dwelleth together in Jesus Christ. O the Greatness of the Majesty and Fulness of this Heavenly Person Job saith of Wisdom which is one of the names of Christ Job 11. v. 6. The Secrets of Wisdom it is double to that which is The Person of Christ in the Secrets of its Spiritual Treasures containeth all things which are and appear in the Light and Eye of the Creature and besides these which are Copies their Originals Thus is it double to that which is having in itself the Shadow and the Substance the Picture and the Life whereas all that is is Shadow and Picture only The Platonists call Secondary and created Beings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Beings the Original they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Unity above all Being But Job going on to speak of Jesus-Christ addeth Canst thou find out the Almighty to Perfection v. 7. As high as Heaven deeper than Hell v. 8. The Measure thereof is longer than the Earth broader than the Sea That is observable The Divine Wisdom called also the Almighty is as high as Heaven but deeper than Hell His Heights are all Heavens and his Depths are Heaven below Hell itself What are the Dimensions what are the Comprehensions of this Spiritual Person It is the Heaven of Heavens for height of Glory It stretcheth the Compass of its everlasting Beauties and sweetnesses beneath Hell itself comprehending that in its Depths amidst the precious things of its sacred deep below It s Measure extendeth beyond both Earth and Sea in all their Literal and Mystical Images As the Earth hangeth in the midst of the Air as the Air moveth in the bosom of Heaven So Earth Hell Sea Air Heaven and all live move and have their Being in this most high Person and Spirit O the Greatness of the Majesty and Fulness of Christ I think not fit to pass over this Part of our Saviours Beauty the variety in him without Two Notes one of the happiness of Believers the other of the Unhappiness of Sinners 1. Note How happy are they who are persuaded in their hearts to trust in Jesus Christ and by faith to abide in him They dwell together with and in all Fulness When they travel through the valley of Baca of Weeping they go from Strength to Strength from one part of the Variety from one Beauty in the Person of their Beloved to another So they see the God of Gods in Sion the open face and full Beauties of their Bridegroom in the Unity of His eternal Person and Spirit in every form of things Every Pit the deepest and darkest is filled with Divine Beauties in him and his Fulness Psal. 139. v. 6. David cryeth out This Knowledge is too wonderful for me The Name that is the Person of Christ is Emmanuel that is God with us Mat. 1. v. 23. God inhabiting all Forms of things that all Fulness may dwell in him and so he may be with a Believer a Believer with him every where at all times David was in this Contemplation of Christ's Person and ravished with it Thou compassest my path v. 3. Thou hast beset me behind and before v. 6. I am encompassed and shut in with thy Person behind and before from Eternity to Eternity in every Form of Darkness or Light Earthly or Heavenly I am still with thee All
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
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
effect of that union Jesus Christ put a life a divine life into every Creature by his union with it St. Paul seemeth to relate to this Scripture and to confirm this living beautiful and Divine State of all the Creatures as they came forth from God Colos. 1. 16. All things were made in him all things were made thorow him unto him and into him v. 18. All things stood together in him Well then the Dust the Ground the Earth the Darkness in the pure state of the Creation were made in Christ were life in him were made in union with Christ. They were made thorow Christ as their mould and channel They were made by Christ as their Original pattern as the immediate power putting forth itself in them They stood together with the rest of the Creatures in the Divine Unity in Christ. Thus had this Dust of which we speak a Divine life in it a Divine Beauty upon it a Divine Seed in it this life was the life of Christ and so comprehended according to its kind all the lives and vertues of all the Creatures and of Paradise It s beauty was the beauty of Christ in which after the like manner all created beauties centred and met in one Christ himself was the Seed in this Dust and so not only the excellencies and virtues of the whole Creation but all the uncreated Treasures of Life and Glory lay together shaded and vailed within this Dust. But their vail and their shade was a living beautiful and pleasant Picture of themselves all filled with the sweet Odour of those hidden Ointments I have one thing more to say to describe this Dust. Man who was the last days work the comprehension and perfection of the whole Creation was made in a shadowy Image of God For so the word Image in the first of Genesis signifieth and the Scriptures in their whole course testify In the beginning all things came forth from God in an universal Darkness before the Light of the first day This Darknâ—ss is remarkable in several eminent circumstances 1. It was cast forth immediately from the Divine Nature and from the glorious Person of Christ to be a vail round about upon the Eternal Glory itself and to be a ground of the whole Creation 2. It stood in an â—immediate union with the Divine Nature and the glorious Person of Christ springing forth immediately from it and depending immediately upon it 3. The unsearchable riches of the God-Head and of Christ with all the various Excellencies of the creatures as they were in their eternal patterns and principles lay hid together within this shade 4. Out of this ground did God make to spring all the creatures in their primitive paradisical purity and pleasantness being wrapt up here as in their first matter and having their proper seeds sown here Thus was this Darkness a shade indeed but pure indued with a Divine Life cloathed with a Divine beauty and lustre bearing a Divine figure breathing forth a Divine sweetness spread forth every moment fresh with a new lustre and sweetness from the Divine Nature vailing within itself all the Joys and Glories of God Christ Heaven and Paradise and as it hides all these in its Bosom lying itself in the Bosom of Christ. Such is the Ground such is the Dust of the Ground and the Earth out of which the Body of Man was first taken and into which the Body of a dying Saint returns Such is the Darkness of Death that overshadows a Saints body like the Nights in Paradise But there is this advantage now that this pure primitive Dust and Darkness are heightened have a new and greater beauty and sweetness by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead This is the first Dust the Dust before the Fall 2. The second Dust is that after the Fall understood in that sentence Dust thou art and to Dust thou shalt return This is the Dust of that Death which sin brings forth a cursed Dust the Dust of the cursed Earth which bringeth forth Bryars and Thorns That former beautiful and blessed Dust lies captivated in this as in a Prison or Grave of contrariety and enmity This Dust is composed of three things 1. A Separation Dissolution and Desolation from the â—orce and power of Enmity 2. A Blackness of Darkness from a cloud and storm of wrath 3. The seeds of shame pain anguish horrour and torment hidden in it This Dust is that which the Body of a Saint casts off in Death upon this worldly Image and Spirit together with the Spirit and Image of this world This is that which suffereth dissolution which representeth deformity and striketh the horrour in Death All which are now of the Image of this world and to the Image of this World in the Spirit of this World and to the Spirit of this World within the Kingdom of the Devil having no more relation to a Saint in Death than the filthy raggs of a Prince in a Dangeon to the Prince at Liberty and in his Pallace Death rubbing off the Rust of this cursed Dust from the Body of a Saint leaves it all a shining rich incorruptible Dust of pure Gold His Body is now entirely with Christ a precious pleasant and living Dust in the Garden-Beds the Beds of Spices or perfumed Flowers in Paradise This is the second Distinction of the two Dusts 3 Dist. The third distinction is of a twofold sense Rom. 8. 6. St. Paul teacheth us That to be carnally minded is Death but to be spiritually minded is Life and Peace The Greek runs thus the mind of the flesh and the mind of the spirit The word mind is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a practical understanding and comprehendeth a twofold act one of the understanding to disâ—â—rn and judge another of the will to tast and rellish So the mind is here a sense and a favour both in one Thus you have here a twofold sense Spiritual and Carnal or Fleshly 1. The Spiritual sense is set forth three ways 1. By the Principle 2. By two effects of this Principle 3. By two companions of these effects 1. The Principle of a Spiritual sense is the Spirit this holy and blessed Spirit is the only and proper Principle of a Saint and Saintship of a Son of God and a Sâ—â—ship to God Art thou indeed a Saint then thou art in the Spirit of Glory and of God as in thy Root and Element as a Tree of Life in the Root of Eternal Life and Love as Fishes in the water of Life as Birds in the pure air of Divine Love as Angels in Heaven Rom. 8. 9. You are not saith St. Paul to the Saints in thâ— Flesh but in the Spirit Art thou indeed a Son of God Then is this Spirit of Grace and Immortality in thee as thy natural Principle as the power of Nature according to the new and Divine Nature which acteth thee Rom. 8. 16. As many as are led by the Spirit of God are
to us in that colour In like manner there is a native moisture upon our Palates and Tongues by which we tast things If this moisture have any tast of its own every thing tasteth of it Blessed art thou who livest the life of a Saint Thou livest the life of Heaven upon Earth The Spirit is the Christal in the Eye of thy Soul thorow which thou seest all things This Christal hath a heavenly colour of Glory ever upon it Thou then feest all things in this ravishing colour in a Heavenly Glory The Spirit is the Divine moisture and water of life upon the pallate of thy Soul by which thou tastest all things This water of the Spirit hath ever the heavenly rellish the unexpressible sweetness of the Divine Nature of the Divine Love of the pleasures of the God-Head Thus thou savourest all things This Love and Sweetness thou rellishest in every thing 3. The two companions of these two effects of a Spiritual Principle are 〈◊〉 and Peace To be spiritually minded is Life and Peace 1. Life The Spirit and Life are inseparable one from another The words that I speak they are Spirit and they are life saith Jesus Christ Joh. 6. The Spirit is the Fountain of Life For he is called the Spirit of Life Rom. 8. The Quickening Spirit 1 Cor. 15. The Power of an Endless Life Heb. Let us ever pray that we may ever live in the Spirit For now we live if we stand fast in our spiritual Principle The Life which we now live is first pure It hath nothing of any Mixture of any Defilement or of any shadow of Death Secondly It is perfect It hath all the Sweetnesses Virtues Joys and Beauties of Life in it Thirdly It is perpetual It never ceaseth It never endeth but springeth to Eternity Fourthly It is a powerful Life It maintains itself against all the Powers of Darkness and Death It maintains itself in the midst of them as a sweet Light of Glory shining in a dark place and triumphing over the darkness In a word this Life is the purest sweetest and most lasting Liâ—e For it flows immediately and springs up continually from the Fountain of Life itself Nay which is far sweeter and more glorious it is Life as it lies in the Fountain of Life It is Life not only from the Spirit but in the Spirit So St. Paul speaks in this Chapter They that are in the Spirit and to the Galatians if ye live in the Spirit 2. The other Companion of a Spiritual Sense is Peace Peace in the Language of the Scripture signifieth a perfection of Happiness It is distinguished into 1. Peace above with God 2. Peace within in your own Consciences and Spirits 3. Peace with all Creatures round about you O how true is it that they keep the Feast continually a Royal and Divine Feast in white Garments who live in a spiritual sense of things Every day to them is a Holy Day a Festival Day All things are festival round about them All things are in a Covenant of Peace with them in a Covenant of Grace and Divine Peace All appearances of things in every State shine upon them from the glorified Person of Christ as heavenly Beauties smiling upon them All Providences Changings and Motions of things are a Heavenly Musick springing up to them and sounding round about them in the Unity of the Spirit All Impressions made upon their Souls from every passage of Providence or Change is a most delicious sweetness upon their Spirits an unexpressible Taste of Heaven and Eternity But the manner of St. Paul's Expression is very observable and hath a great force in it To be spiritually minded is Life and Peace The sense and favour of the Spirit is itself Life and Peace universally absolutely in the abstract in perfection without any Confinement or Allay The spiritual sense of a Saint is the pure and compleat Essence of Life and Peace in its highest Activity How true is it that a good man is satisfied from himself How Holy how High how Happy how Heavenly a thing is it to be a Saint to be spiritual to live as a Saint to live spiritually Thou now comprehendest all things in an uncorruptible Beauty Love and Joy in thy self as in Heaven For all things are to thee thine own spiritual Principle thine own spiritual Sence springing up and diffusing itself into all blessed Forms of Glory Delight and Immortality within thee Jesus Christ tells his Spouse in the Canticles That she is a Fountain of Living Waters flowing from Lebanon That she is a Fountain of Gardens That all her Plants are Plants of Paradise O blessed Spirit who livest in the Eternal Spirit as thy Principle by which thou art inwardly acted The Principle of thine is the Fountain the ground of Paradise within thee All forms of things are Paradisical Plants at once pleasant to the Eye good for Food desirable to fill thee with all the most glorious Treasures of the Divine Wisdom Thy Spiritual Principle is the Divine Ground out of which all these Plants of Paradise grow up within thee as thine own Plants Thy spiritual Sense and Savour is a perpetual Feeding and Feasting upon the Fruits of Paradise which these Plants continually bring forth 2. The Fleshly or Carnal Sense is also illustrated by three Circumstances 1. The Principle 2. The Effect of that Principle 3. The Companion of that Effect 1. The Principle of a Carnal Sense is the Flesh. It is expresly called the Mind or Sense of the Flesh. The Flesh the Natural Man the Earthly Man the Spirit of man the natural Soul in the Language of the Gospel and most of them in this present Chapter signifie the same Principle of a carnal Sense of Sin and of Death Happy is he that is not here deceived Every Earthly Heavenly Humane Angelical Spirit or Principle however enlightened sanctified heightened by the work of the Spirit below that Spirit which 〈◊〉 immediately born of the eternal Spirit which is one Spirit with it and liveâ—â— in it is Flesh and this Principle of a fleshly Mind or Sense or of Death 2. The Effect of this Fleshly Principle is Twofold 1. A Carnal 〈◊〉 Fleshly Sense 2. A Fleshly or Carnal Savour How unpleasant is thy Life who livest in this Principle for the sight of thine Eyes The Light of 〈◊〉 World which alone thou seest is Darkness and the shadow of Death Foâ— the Prince of this World is the Prince of Darkness Thou measurest Heavenly and Spiritual things by Earthly and Carnal When Jesus Christ in the Gospel was reproved by Peter for the mentioâ— of his Sufferings and Death the Lord replies to Peter Get thee behind 〈◊〉 Satan For thâ—u savourest not the things of God but the things of man Theâ—â— are Three things remarkable in these words 1. There is a Humane 〈◊〉 there is a Divine Sense of the same things and these two are contraâ—â—â— one to another 2. Those things that are the things
at an end as the life of Christ ended O you who are followers of Christ and predestinated to be conformed to him in your Lives and in your Deaths meet Death with Joy with the shout of those who cry out for victory Now is your Warfare accomplished now is your Captivity in the Fleshly Spirit and Image at an end You shall dwell now no more in Meshek at a distance from the Divine Glory nor sojourn in the Tents of Kedar in the Land of Darkness The Vail of the Flesh is now rent from the top to the bottom thorow your whole Soul and Body In both as you seem to fleshly senses to enter into the shade of Death you in that moment enter into the Kingdom of Light the Glorious Pallace of your Father the Divine Beauties and Joys of the Heavenly Image You have now fought the good Fight and finished it Henceforth from this moment it is that the Crown of Righteousness the Crown of Life and Immortality hath been laid up for you to be set upon your Heads and worn by you which God shall now give you from his own presence from his own hand in this day of Glory which now breaketh and riseth upon you 3. Scrip. Colos. 2. 15. The Apostle speaking of Christ saith thus and having spoiled Principalities and Powers he made a show of them openly and triumphed over them in it that is his Cross which was mentioned in the latter end of the foregoing verse There are three parts in this Scripture which is a glorious description of the Victory of our Lord Jesus 1. The Subject of his Victory 2. The Victory itself 3. The Seat of his Victory 1. The Subject of Christs Victory are Principalities and Powers The first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Principles The second word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth Dominions Principalities and a power of ruling By these names the Angels are expressed as they are the Invisible Springs out of which all visible things continually flow as they are the Supream Glories Virtues Powers among things created to which this present world is subjected by which it is enlivened enlightned formed acted and ruled Thus the Victory of Christ extendeth itself over the whole Creation the whole frame of Nature in its Heavenly Angelical and unseen part in that which is Earthly and visible in the Fountain-Glories and flowing Streams in the Princes on high and their Principalities beneath 2. The Victory itself is exprest in three steps 1. The Spoil 2. The Show 3. The Triumph 1. The Spoil He spoiled Principalities and Powers The word signifieth to uncloath The Lord Jesus as a conquering Prince uncloathed the Invisible Princes of this World of all Power Principality and Appearance by which means the whole Creation and the frame of Nature which stood by these Powers in these Appearances according to their first and natural State were dissolved fell into the depths of Darkness and confusion disappearing for ever 2. The Show Our Victorious Saviour brought forth all the Principles Powers and Appearances of Nature into the open light of the Eternal Spirit There he led them as Captives through the Streets of the Heavenly Jerusalem showing them as the subjects and marks of his Victory to all the Innumerable and Glorious Inhabitants of that Blessed City of the great King 3. The Triumph He Triumphed over them All natural Powers Glories Lives and Images lay beneath the Feet of the Lord Jesus as his Footstool while he sat down upon a Throne of Glory cloathed all over with Garments of Glory and wearing a Crown of Glory upon his Head These are the three Parts of Christs Victory 3. The Seat of Christs Victory was his Cross. He Triumphed on it Heaâ— this all ye that are one Seed one Spirit with the Lord Jesus that are made conformable to his Death in your Lives and Deaths Hear this let it be written upon your Hearts in Characters of Glory with a living Beam from that bright Sun the Face of our Lord Jesus as he shines in the Eternal Glory of his most Blessed Victory and Triumph It was upon his Cross it was upon his Cross that the Lord Jesus spoiled made a Show of Triumphed over the Principalities and Powers of this World Our Blessed Saviour in dying by dying in that very moment by that very act dissolves and defaceth at once the whole frame of Nature and of the first Creation He taketh away from it all Power of being subsisting acting or appearing He blotteth out every natural Image and form of Light or Darkness Life or Death Beauty or Deformity Shame or Glory Grief or Joy for ever You have this excellently painted out in a clear Prophesy Psalm 73. 20. As a Dream when one awaketh O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their Image The word Image signifieth a Shadow The Eternal Word the Heavenly Image our Lord Jesus was in this Creation as under the Vail of Darkness and Night as in a sleep He bringeth forth and beareth up all the Powers and Forms of Nature as a Dâ—eam in this sleep and as shadowy Images in this Dream By dying he awakes out of this sleep he sets an end to this Dream The whole frame of Nature with all Forms and Images of things within the vast compass of it either Visible or Invisible break up fly away and vanish as a Dream as the shadowy Images in a Dream when a Man awaketh But neither are they quite lost They only change their Principle and Appearance In the same dying moment doth the Lord Jesus who is that Eternal and Essential Image in whom they all subsist appear and pass thorow their several changes carry them with himself into the Divine Light and Life of the Eternal Spirit There are they seen again as the Fruits of his Conquest spoiled of all their own Life Light and Form having put on a new Life Light and Form according to the Will of the Conqueror to show forth his Power and Glory to make them pleasant and Eternal Spectacles of his Divine Triumph to all the Inhabitants of Heaven and Eternity Now before he is taken down from the Cross even upon the Cross itself the Lord Jesus as he gives up his Spirit with his last breath Triumphs in his Soul and Body too whose proper Seat the Cross was In both cloathed with Triumphal Robes of an immortal Beauty and Blessedness he rides forth in the Glorious Chariot of the Heavenly Image and of the Eternal Spirit All the Powers and Forms of Nature of Life and Death the Cross itself and the Crucifiers as Captive follow his Chariot bound in the Golden Chains of Divine Light and Love making up the delight and Glory of his Triumph This also doth the Psalmist clearly Prophesy of Psal. 68. 18. Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led Captivity Captive The descent of our Lord Jesus was finished with his Life He begins his ascent upon his Cross the first moment of his
Death This World with all its Powers and Principalities the life of this World the Cross itself and Death which had so long captivated the Lord Jesus with all the Powers Beauties Joys and Glories of his Heavenly Image binding them in Chains of Darkness within the Dungeon of this Earthly Image whose light is darkness are now themselves in the Person of our Lord Jesus in his Soul and Body together with his Captivity itself carryed up as he ascends and made Captives to that Heavenly Image which they held Captive Here in this Pallace of the Spirit and of Eternity where Darkness itself shines as the Light they are seen as the Captives of the Lord Jesus bound in Chains of Glory spectacles to all the Holy Angels and Blessed Spirits in which the Beauties of Christs Victory and Triumph as so many ravishing Wonders of an Incomprehensible of a Mysterious Power Wisdom Love Glory Divinity subduing all things entirely to themselves eternally shine This honour have all the Saints in their Deaths by the vertue of their Saviours Death by vertue of their fellowship with him and his fellowship with them mutually in their several Deaths all in each Death dying together Where now is the Melancholy of Death and of the Grave It is swallowed up into the Divine Pomp and Pleasure of a most Glorious Victory and Triumph O Saint What fearest thou in Death Or thou who fearest not to be dead why fearest thou to die If thou rejoicest in the Glory of thy departed Soul why mournest thou over thy Body as left behind in a naked and loathsome Prison The act of dying to both is the gaining of a Glorious Victory over the Life and Death the Powers and Principalities of this whole World The passage itself out of this Life is a Glorious Triumph to thy Soul and Body both which with all the Triumphal Ornaments of the Light of Life and Immortality ride forth in the Chariot of the Heavenly Image and the Eternal Spirit over the Spirit and all the forms of this Creation which lie conquered under your Feet In the very moment of your dying all the Powers and Appearances of Nature which rule in the Kingdoms of Sense and Reason are lost for ever so that their place where once they reigned in your Persons knows them no more You sit down upon the Throne of Christ and the Father together with them All the Births Images and changes of time are swallowed up into the bright the beautiful the most delightful depths of Eternity the unfathomable depths of purest Light Love and Joy immediately as Triumphant Conquerors and Kings you are encompassed with the ravishing applauses and shouts of innumerable Angels of Immortal and Glorious spirits springing up and shining forth in all the places of this World where its Light or Darkness Life or Death seemed before to stand You see all these with a Heavenly Musick and Songs of Triumph setting Garlands and Crowns of Victory on your Heads immediately as you pass out of the Light of this Life you see your selves received your Souls and your Bodies both with the most delicious kisses into the Eternal Embraces of the Father and of Christ in that Unity of the Spirit which is the unfathomable center of all Lights Loves and Joys of all beautiful and blissful Spirits created and uncreated All now for ever are filling full your Joys in themselves and fulfilling their Joys in you 4. Scrip. Heb. 2. 14. That he by dying might destroy him who had the power of Death that is the Devil and set them free who all their life time were subject to bondage by the fear of Death The word Power in this place signifieth properly a Prince with a Principality or Dominion This whole world is the Principality of the Devil For the Devil is called in Scripture the Prince of this world All Flesh every thing of Nature and of this Creation is comprehended under that name as it is distinguished from and opposed to the Spirit and the new Creation in the Spirit the Kingdom of God in the Holy Ghost and is the Principality of the Devil All Darkness every shadow every evil of Sin or Suffering of Corruption and the Curse of Shame Deformity Pain Grief and Wrath as all these are expressed in the Scripture and in common Language with every other kind or degree of Evil by Darkness are the Principality of the Devil For the Devil is called the Prince of Darkness Death is the Devils Principality who in this Scripture is called the Power or Prince of Death All this then hath Jesus Christ by dying destroyed in his own Person this World the Principles and Forms of Nature the Life and Images of Flesh every Darkness inward or outward of mind or sense Death itself For all these lie within the Principality of the Devil and are his Region his Kingdom without the bounds of this Dominion all things are Light Life Love Joy Immortality Spirit and Truth As it is Jesus who dies again in the Death of every Saint as the Death of every Saint is the Death of Christ acted over again in the similitude by the vertue of his Death so doth every Saint as he is one Spirit with Christ after the like manner by dying destroy the Principality the Kingdom of the Devil in his Person also For this is said to be the end of Christ in his Death that he might free all the Saints from the fear of Death O Believers Let your Saviour gain his end upon you and end of most tender Love Be no more in bondage to the fear of Death Let the Lord Jesus see the seed of his Death springing up in your Deaths a Glorious and Divine Seed of Life and Immortality springing up in the place of Death and swallowing it up into Victory Lay aside now for ever those melancholy and delusive Imaginations of Death as a separation of those tenderest Bosom-Friends Soul and Body a separation from your dearest Relations and entertainments the delights of your Eyes an extinguishing of the sweet Light of Life a dismal solitude a perpetual Darkness the Confinement of the Body to the nakedness coldness streightness and horrour of the Grave Dust Stones and Bones covering it and ratling over it Worms feeding upon it the Soul naked and alone taking its flight through a vast distance of empty air and space to another place These are the Forms and Appearances of Death to the Dead only Those who follow Jesus Christ in that living and shining way in which he went thorow Death meet with none of these appalling and affrightful Apparitions Let the Dead bury their Dead saith Jesus Christ to his Disciples but follow thou me Understand this O Believers that all Shadows all Forms of Darkness and of Death are from below Earthly Sensual Devilish from the Earth from the Natural Soul and from the Devil as St. James speaks All this Image and sense of things is that Kingdom of the Devil which together
Being is capable of to be consuming so as ever to wish it as the only medicine of ones evil and ever to fear it as the greatest of all Evils as the most incomprehensible Evil to be no more How sweet and delightful was the Triumph of our Lord Jesus over this Monster which stands with so grim and frightful a look in the Gate of Death O Corruption O Decay O Destructions where is your Victory Jesus Christ comes into the empty and obscure shades of Death with the fulness of the Godhead with all the Lights of the Divine Nature of Angelical and created Glories of Heaven and Eternity with their full splendours shining together all at once in the Unity of his Divine Person This Person which is the Fulness that filleth all in all which is the Brightness that shineth eternally in the Divine Essence now filleth the whole space oâ— Death now enlighteneth it thorough-out now becometh the stage and Scene of Death supporting it on his delicious Bosom bounding it with his bright and blissful Beams Where is the emptiness where is the shade where is the bottomless Pit of Dread decay in Death They are all swallowed up into shining full substantial Glorys in this Triumph of our Saviour over Death These are the Evils of Corruption in Death over which Christ triumphs See row the height of this Triumph Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption Jesus Christ passeth so triumphantly through the Regions of Death that Corruption loseth not onely its force but its appearance 〈◊〉 his presence Jesus Christ seeks for the place of Corruption and finds it no more Thou O God wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption The God-head itself the Divine Person of Christ the Divine Nature inseparable from that Person goes before the Lord Jesus as a Guide when he passeth through this waste Wilderness It cometh behind him as a Rearward of Glory It encompasseth him on every side with its highest Brightnesses and Blessednesses It suffereth him to see nothing but Itself on every side of him The living shining Glorys of his God-head are Light and Eyes to his dead Body in the Grave With these and with these alone his Divine Person now looketh forth thorough his Body in the Grave thorough the Grave to the utmost bounds of the Regions of Death In this Light to these Eyes all things near at hand and afar off throughout are a shining Prospect of Living Beauties to Eternity This Divine Light and these Divine Eyes are a Divine Flame which in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye break up all Shades of obscurity fill all space with their own Brightnesses transform all Shapes even Corruption and Death into the same Divine Forms with themselves to the utmost bound of things Thus God suffereth not his Holy One to see Corruption 2. The second part is the manner of the Triumph the Triumph of Life is expressed in those words Thou shalt shâ—w me the Path of Life There are here two remarkable Triumphs over Death 1 Life in Death 2. The sight and Triumphant sense of this Life 1. Life in Death is declared by the Path of Life which is made for the Lord Jesus thorough Death Noah with his dear Relations and all kinds of Creatures kept dry and safe in the Ark while the fountains of the great Deep were broken up from below and the windows of heaven were opened from above to cover all things with a Flood of Waters the Children of Israel in the Land of Goshen whâ—â—re there was Light and Rivers of Water while darkness was upon the whole Land of Egypt and the Rivers in it were turned into Blood the Children of Israel passing in a dry path thorough the Red Sea which overwhelmed the Eâ—yptian King with his whole Army the Three Children with the similitude of the son of God walking in the midst of the fiery furnace which burnt their bands only and devoured their enemies which cast them in all these were Figures of Jesus Christ passing in a Path of life thorow Death The Lord Jesus himself in his Heavenly divine form as he is the Essential Image of his Father is his own Way and Life thorough Death This is the Fountain of Life and Eternity itself This hath all Lives bound up in one like those innumerable Beams which pour forth themselves through all things in Heaven and on Earth united in the sun Here Life riseth up in its greatest Fulness in its freshest purest and sweetest Streams where all the strengths Beauties and Joys of Life are at their greatest heighth Thus the Godhead in its Essential Image stands in every part and point of the Humane Nature of Christ dying or dead Thus it stands in every step and point of its Way through Death Thus it makes it all as a Fountain and Fâ—ood of Life As the Milky way in Heaven where innumerable Stars mingle their Beams into one Path of Light Such is the Way of Christ in Death which is all a mixture or contexture of the innumerable Beauties and sweetnesses of Life rising up fresh from the innumerable springs of Life in the Bosom of this Heavenly Image which is Eternity and the Divine Essence it self in its own substantial Form 2. The Triumphant sight and sense of Life accompanys the Lord Jesus in this Path of Life thorow Death as is signified by those words Thou 〈◊〉 shew me or make me to know the Path of Life As a Princely Bridegroom leading his Royal Bride in his hand thorough delightful walks when the spring is in its prime makes her to observe all the delights in the Walks saying to her see how pleasantly all things look how sweetly Heaven and Earth smile one upon another how lovely the leaves and blossoms are upon the Trees the grass and the Flowers upon the ground how pleasantly the birds sing in every bush how pure and sweet the air is how 〈◊〉 the year is now Thus God the Father leads Jesus Christ thus the Divine Nature in the brightness of its Glory leads the Humane Nature thorough the Paâ—h of Life in Death as a heavenly Bridegroom its dearest Bride He loâ—k forth upon him with a flaming eye of Love he saith to him behold a new and large prospect of Divine Lights and all the Beauties of Life in Death with what spicy sweetness and immortal perfumes the Spirit of Life and Love as the Air of Paradise and Heaven itself breaths upon all things here 〈◊〉 do Heaven and Earth the uncreated and the created Image of things reflect the same Beauties and sweetnesses one upon another like the Living Face and the Face in a Chrystal Mirrouâ— How do all glories in their lovelyest Forms richest Varieties looking down from above sprouting forth and blossoming from beneath meet and kiss each other How do Angels how do Immortal and shining Spirits spring and sing every where How doth the Shade of Death itself mingling itself with all
Den the Country a Wilderness all about So is this Fiery Spirit eager to consume all appearances of Life and God upon their first discovery As the Night which entombs all things in it self and makes the richest variety of Shapes but one Lonely shade such a Solitude is the Devil Consider this all ye who cleave to the Noise Glories Pleasures of this world and leave your God least you should be Melancholy See and tremble to see into what a Melancholy Shade what a solitude your souls pass when you die 2. Spectacle Horrour Imagine a world where over your head instead of a Sky black pitchy Clouds perpetually roul not suffering any Glimpse of Light or Day ever to appear under your feet instead of Land or Sea a vast amazing depth which no where by nothing bounds your sight or thought round about you a Desolate Darkness presenting near and at furthest distance all those Forms which are bred in the womb of darkness and carry an astonishing darkness with them to the Senses and Spirits of Men like apparitions Lightnings Shrieks dying Groans roaring Tempests Howling of wild Beasts to a man alone in a Forrest at Midnight Such a world of Horrours is this Evil Spirit Therefore he is set forth by the Outward Darkness where the Worm dies not a Darkness without Light or Limit in which all gnawing Forms of Horrour live Let him that hates not that world of Curses love this world of Varities For the Vanities of one are the Porch to the Vexations of the other 3. Spectacle Torture Every Wound is a Division What are Fears Pains Griefs Death Separations of Desires from their Delights Faculties from their Objects Principles from their Act End Perfection in a word Things from Themselves All Deaths and Tortures then are in the Devil at their heighth in their fullest Power For he is the Principle and Power of Division The Life of this Mighty Creature is a Two-edged Flaming Sword in the midst of itself Each Act and Motion of life is the Brandishing of this Sword Cutting and Burning in every Part and point of life with ten thousand Anguishes 4. Spectacle Ugliness Deformity is Darkness with a Disproportion Darkness in harmony with Light makes a Beauty So the Evening and the Morning make a Day So the Night and sleep are the shade of an Angel's wing dropping sweet sleep and rest on Men. Proportion is a Kind and Image of Unity Disproportion is a Division without any form of Unity Where this Division and Darkness first meet there is the Center of Ugliness the Fountain of ugly things This is the Babel where Ziim and Ijim dwell Unclean Birds Forms dry without any beautiful Water desolate no pleasant plant of Life putting forth it self there irksome and hateful being surrounded with a rude Darkness like rocky uncouth Islands in a Tempestuous Sea or Screech-Owles in a Melancholy Night These are the Four Spectacles of dread death in the Nature of the Devil Solitude Horrour Torture and Ugliness Now make up these Four into One let that One be a Living Spirit of greatest Activity and Capacity This is the Devil the Bottomless Pit of Things the Unpassable Gulf which divides Heaven from Hell This is the Father of Sin and Sinners Now before you commit a Sin propound this Question to your selves Can I eternally wander in a Darkness where I shall never meet Companion or Comfort Can I make everlasting Clouds my Canopy Can I lie under these at Rest Can I sleep sweetly over an unknown roaring Deep Can I imbrace Fire feed on Poysons drink down Tortures like Water Can I make those hateful Shapes at which when they appear the stoutest men grow stiff with horrour and feel their hair to stand on end upon their heads Can I make these ghastly dismal things my Play-fellows If you can do all this then go sin freely But if these be Terrours above Man to bear take heed and start at a Lust more than you would at a Ghost for these are but weak Types of those Tormenting Truths which Sinners must try below For as God makes Heaven so the Devil is the Hell into him do all polluted Souls descend they dwell not only with but in Him Obj. Why should any doubt whether there be a Devil But alass who believes him to be any thing besides a Scar-crow except Children or weak and superstitious Spirits Answ. Yet you that thus reason ask those Principles that govern you Do not Sense and Reason shew that all things have their Roots out of which they rise Are there not such things as Follies Filths and Furies spread through the World Are they not if not the All yet the Greatest part of the word Can these be and no Spring be in which they are United and at their Height This Spring is this Spirit which we call the Devil This is that untam'd Sea of which Job speaks Job 7. 12. Am I a Sea or Whale that thou thus breakest me What pity then is it to see Millions of men go with merry dalliance down the streams of fleshly delights and at the same time to see that Cloudy Sea of Horrours into which they are within a few moments delivered by these streams If every thing make hast to its own Principle and Element Fire to the upper Circle Earth to its Center below If it be Natural for every Plant to bring forth its own Seed then sure it cannot be but that each guilty Soul should sink downward to the Element of Woe and Horrours the Center of Darkness then sure every Sin must at last bring forth a Devil You that love your lusts more than your God learn from your Bodies the state determin'd upon your Souls Your Bodies are Dust and to Dust they must return Your defiled Spirits are of their Father the Devil and to him they must again go when they leave this World This is the first consideration to preserve us from Sin The Nature of the Devil 2. The Nature of Sin We read no where of Mary Magdalen that she was Possess'd according to the common acceptation of that word We read that she was a Sinner eminently absolutely without restraint as if she who is said to have been an Hostess had been an Inne to all Sins Yet she is thus describ'd Mark 16. 9. Mary Magdalen out of whom he had cast Seven Devils All Sins are rankt under Seven Heads These are the Seven Powers of Evil in the Devil which are as so many Devils there These are the Unclean Spirits which go forth from the Mouth of the Dragon into the breasts of all the Sons and Daughters of Adam Fly then from a Sin for 't is a Devil Fly from the sweetest Temptations They may look like Angels but they are the Devil's Angels the most immediate Emanations or Images from that foul Principle Qu. But you will say What is Sin How shall I know it That I may fly from it Ans. You may know it by the Image it
and then feeding their Spirit from thine who gave thee all these The secret of the Almighty was with thee 2. Principle The Removal of the Divine Presence is the Root of all Bitterness in this Life When God withdraws he draws in all his Blessings as the Sun often goes in and gives up the Sky and Day to dark Clouds What wilt thou do when like wretched Saul The Philistines are upon thee and God hath forsaken thee When Perplexity shall take hold of thy Spirit when there shall be no Counsel or Comfort left because God hath forsaken thee What then can all thy Pleasures or Honours do Will they not be as miserable Comforters as the Witch of Endor to Saul presenting thee with Devils under God-like forms ill-boding foretelling thy death and Ruine When our dear Saviour was on the Cross he did not cry out O my Disciples why do ye fly from me or deny me O ye Iews my Brethren why do ye wound so bloodily my Feet Hands and Head No but he cries out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me This broke his heart David complains in Psal. 30. 7. Thou hast made my Mountain strong but thou didst turn away thy face and I was troubled Place a man in a Wilderness of Horrours in a Sea of Flames let the Secret of God be with him and he will fear he will feel no Evil. Plant a man on a Mountain where he may not only with Christ see but possess all the Delights and Glories of this World let God be gone and you may call them all Ichabod where 's the Glory Where 's the Delight The whole Mountain will moulder into Melancholy and crumble away into Griefs O! Fear to estrange this God from you by a neglect of him on whose Presence all your present Joyes depend Fear to put out his Light in your Souls by your Lusts fear to chase away by your hardnesses and Rebellions that God who when he removes his Glory from off any Person or Place gives up all to ruine and leaves a Hell behind him This is the first Persuasive 2. Persuasive Fear the lâ—ss of Divine Enjoyments after Death Is there any thing any where more moving more full of sweetness than the language of the Apostle 1 Thes. 4. 18. Then we shall be for ever with the Lord. Comfort ye one another with these words I will present your Spirits with the force of this place in three short Propositions 1. Proposition Thâ—re is a Lord over all a supream Principle or Power which makes maintains manages all the Creatures a Spirit of Strength and Wisdom which governs the affairs of the whole World Thus St. Paul speaks 1. Cor. 8. 6. To us there is one God the Father of whom are All one Lord Jesus by whom are All. 2. Proposition This Lord is the best of all things As he is over so he is above all 1 Cor. 2. 8. St. Paul calls him the Lord of Glory The Heathens teach us that the God of the Sun is the God of Musick because he tempers with his Beams and tunes all the visible world This Lord our Lord is the God of Light Beauty Musick the God of all Sweetnesses Glories Blessednesses For he tunes both the visible and invisible World to a happy Harmouy 3. Proposition All good Spirits are the Friends all evil Spirits the Enemies of this Lord. Each pure lightsome peaceful Spirit comes from this Jesus and goes to him again when it goes off the Stage of this Earth as a Beam darted from his Glory and drawn up to him again Each dark unclean disorderly Spirit is cut off and cast out from him One is every where in Scripture stiled His Child His Brother The other is thus spoken to by him Depart from me ye cursed Now what joy is it when a man in all the troubles of Life can comfort himself with these words and say This Life will quickly end then shall I be ever with the Lord my Lord the Lord of Blâ—ssedness Who can express the Peace and Pleasure of that Soul within which lies upon its Death-bed and in the last moment of its abode in the World comforts itself with these words Now I must be uncloath'd of all Being or Appearance among men on Earth for ever But it is that I may be for ever in the naked Embraces of the Eternal Spirit of Life and Beauty I go from hence for ever but I go to be for ever with the Lord. I had faintâ—d saith David if I had not hoped to see the Goodness of the Lord in the land of the Living Who can tell those fainting fits in the midst of highest Pleasures those bitter Soul-turning Qâ—aulmes in fullest Glories which those men have that have no hope to see the Goodness of the Lord after this Life Many pangs many pangs of remorse and anguish pangs far beyond the pangs of a natural Death hath that dying Soul which hath no hope to live with God after Death Fear then this Loss so great so irreparable Fear to be prophane like Esau to sell your Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage to fell your hopes of Heaven for a short Satisfaction to your sensual Appetite 3. Persuasive Fear what God can do What cannot he do to make you miserable who is the God of the Spirits of all Flesh He can let forth Five Spirits upon you 1. Spirit of Diseases 2. Spirit of Folly and Falshood 3. Spirit of Melancholy 4. Spirit of Ruine 5. His own Spirit 1. Spirit of Diseases God can send a Spirit of Diseases into thy Body to strike thee with Worms with some foul and sharp sickness till thou dye a loath'd and horrid Death Thus he did to King Herod in the Acts. Can all thy Physicians then cure thee 2. Spirit of Folly and Falshood God can send into thy Breast a Lying Spirit that shall carry the on to foolish Counsels that thou mayst perish Thus he did with King Ahab Can thy Wisdom foresee or prevent this 3. Spirit of Melancholy God can let forth upon thee a Spirit that shall sit upon thy Brain and Heart like a black Cloud distilling poyson upon both This shall be thy inseparable Companion at Table and Bed in society in solitude to vex thee perpetually This shall make thy sweetest Delights thy dearest Relations a Burthen and a disease to thee This shall make thy surest Strengths and firmest aids a matter of continual Suspicion and mortal Jealousy to thee Thus he did with King Saul What delights or businesses can now divert thee 4. Spirit of Ruine God can let upon thee as upon Job a Spirit like a devouring Sea or Storm This shall take away from thee thy whole Estate from thy Children their Life from thy Wife and wisest Friends their Affection and Tenderness This will fill thy Skin with Noysomness thy veins with Fire thy Bones with Pains thy Head with black vapours This shall take away all rest from thy Sleeps filling them with affrighting
So may we to our Beloved in every form in the Ghastliness of Death fall down ravished with the greatness of his Glory and cry out My Lord and my God Every thing of our Jesus seen into the depth and inside of it or in a right Light is an Heaven of Heavens John 1. 14. The word was made Flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory the glory as of the Onely-begotten Son of God 3. The last and highest consideration of our Saviours Beauty is as he is God One with the Father the Onely true God This is the Head of fine Gold of solid Gold to which all his other Beauties are as the Locks and Curles of his Hair blacks as a Raven Shadows and Foils Can. 5. 11. This is your Beloved and this is your Friend O believing Souls I shall now give you a Proof from Scripture and Reasons concerning the whole Person of Christ after this explication of his Beauties in particular Forms and States Man was made in the Image and Similitude of God of the whole Trinity For so Divines expound that Gen. 1. Let us make man in our own Likeness of the Three ever-blessed Persons in the God-Head Some make it a consultation of the Deity in the Assembly of all the Holy Angels to make man an Image where all their various Excellencies should meet in the Unity of his Person to make Man a Musical Harmony of which every Angel makes a part only Upon either of these Interpretations Man is the most beautiful of all Creatures having the perfections of all Summed and Sealed up in himself to make a compleat similitude of the Divine Nature like mystical Letters in the Living Word of which the First Adam is a Figure In the 1. of Ezek. The living Creatures full of Wings and Eyes by which the Angelical Nature is represented among their other manifold Forms which appear in every particular Angel is the Form of a Man This Humane Form is the Image of God the Beauty of the Angelical Essences and the proper Essence of man Let us then enlarge our Doctrine and confirm it in its Latitude If Jesus Christ be fairer than the Sons of Men He is the fairest of all Things Proof Câ—n. 5. 9 10. The Spiritual Bride which is the Church in general and each believing Soul in particular testifieth of Christ by the Spirit of Truth that He is white and ruddy the chiefest of Ten Thousand We have here the Beauty of Christ set forth first Absolutely then Comparatively First Absolutely He is white and ruddy The Hebrew word for white signifieth smooth clear shining brightness like that of the Body of Heaven in the fairest and calmest day That for ruddy imports the purest and most sparkling red like that of a Ruby The same Word for the substance is set for the richest Ruby Lament for the Ground out of which the First Man was made Gen. 2. which say the Jews was the fairest Composition of all the finest parts of the Earth with its most precious vertues far beyond the finest Gold The same word also is used for the First Man in his First Make when he was the fairest Flower in Paradise The most perfect white is the purest Light which hath no Darkness in it The purest red is the most exact mixture of Light and Shadow In General these words import a compleat beauty in the Person of Christ. a beauty suitable to us fitted to the Eye of our Faculties our Sense and Understanding It is the manner of Men to express the most perfect beauty of a Face by pure White and Red. We have also a signification that the choicest beauties here are Shadows only of Jesus Christ. White and Red in the loveliest Face below is the Type and Figure in that glorious Person it is the Truth the Original Divines call the Creatures with all their Excellencies Vestigia Dei the Foot-steps of God If the Print of Christs Feet in the Dust make such Beauties in Flesh and Blood in these Heavens in the Angels what are the Beauties of his own Divine Person 1. In Particular 1. White is the Unity of Light in its simplicity This is the Person of Christ Red expresseth the variety of Light and Darkness with all their Degrees and Mixtures as they lie in the Unity of a pure and simple Light This is Light in its several Forms and Dresses This is the high and Universal Harmony which maketh all sorts of Musick and Beauty thorow all things in Heaven and Earth as it sendeth forth Sounds and Glympses of itself any where This hath all things in itself in their several perfections This maketh every thing in itself a Divine Musick and Beauty to the Spiritual Eye and Spiritual Ear. 2. White is the God-Head in Christ making a Day of Beauty whiâ—h hath no night going before it or coming after it Red is the Lord Jesus as he is God-man where the Day and the Night make one entire Day of perfect Beauty the Night sweetly shadowing the Day the Day shining beautifully thorow the Night Here Beauty hath all its Charms and Sweetnesses of its Mornings and its Evenings 3. White is Christ in Glory Red is this Christ this Glory descending to the Depth of all Sufferings Red is the Colour of Blood Nothing is more apt among Natural things to delight and ravish our Souls than the Musick of an excellent hand carried down in just degrees by soft and melting strains to the lowest and there as it were quite silenced then on a sudden carried up again to a Sprightly and Triumphant height How agreeable how delightful a Spectacle is this to the Eye of the Spirit to see the Lord Jesus who is Glory itself descending with beautiful Conformities to the Wisdom of the Father with sweet meltings of himself into the Will of the Father thorow all degrees of Sufferings into the Silence and Darkness of Death itself then in a moment to spring up into Glory and Immortality by the Resurrection from the Dead What believing and loving Soul when she seeth these beautiful goings of her Jesus on the Earth on Mount Golgotha in the Grave would not gladly go â—own with him in the Fellowship of his Sufferings into the same Grave as inâ—â— a Spiritual Marriage-bed to come forth immediately in the glorious Mornâ—â—g of the Resurrection as a Bridegroom out of his Chamber I have hitherto spoken of the Absolute Praise of Christs Beauty in this Scripture He is White and Ruddy I am now to speak of the Comparative Praise He is the chiefest of ten thousand Ten thousand is a particular number set for All. The Hebrew word signifieth the greatest number it is applied to Angels Psal. 68. 18 The Chariot of the Lord is ten thousand Angels are understood The Angels are the fairest of all creatures Our Saviour is the fairest of all the Angels The word Chiefest is in Hebrew a Standard-bearer The Standard-bearer carries the Banner The Banner is the Mark and
a Sight of that Heaven which is the Principle of the Lord Jesus in Glory This lyeth clear before us that the Heaven understood in this place cannot be any Visible or Common Heaven no not any of the Created Heavens This is an Heaven above All. For He who cometh forth from it is Lord of All. He is made Higher than All Heavens by ascending into this Heaven which is of another Make different from all things of the First Creation and hath a New Name above every Name that is named in this World or that which is to come the World of Sense or the World of Angels Heb. 7. 26. Eph. 4. v. 10. The Earth then of which we speak cannot be the Common Earth It must be as large as that mentioned Gen. 1. v. 2. out of which the Heavens themselves were made The Earth intended here by the Holy Ghost taketh in all things below the Heaven mentioned and meant by Him Angels with all the Invisible Glories of the First Creation are Gods arising up out of this Earth and comprehended within the Compass of it I will set up Three Lights before you by which I shall endeavour to give you a Prospect of this Earth and of the First Man arising out of it so as to be a Shadow and a Figure of the Heaven we aim at with our Bridegroom coming down out of it coming down in it as His Mother of Eternal Love His Garment and Crown of Divine Beauty His Chariot of Life and Light of Power and Pleasure 1. Light God as He is the Head of the First Creation cometh not forth Naked but in a Shadowy Image of Himself which He casteth as a Vail over the true and proper Beauties of His own Person which the Eye of no Creature ever saw or can see Psal. 104. The Psalmist singeth the praises and wonders of God in the Creation After the preface he beginneth thus Who coverest thy self with Light as with a Garment and stretchest out the Heavens as a Curtain v. 2. You have a manifest allusion here to the Works of the First and Second Day Gen 1. The Jews say from this Scripture in the books of their wise and learned men that God to make this World appeared not in His naked Beauties but cum Indumentis suis with a Garment for a Covering upon Him The Light in which God shineth forth at the Beginning to form a Mass of Darknes into a beautiful Creation was onely a Shadow of the Eternal Light of His own Nature and Substance and a Vail upon it The Glory itself the Divine Presence and Appearance at the Head of this Creation which was spread over the whole Compass of it as an Heaven was a Curtain drawn before the true Heaven the true Glory which stood behind this Curtain like the Oracle in the most Holy place while the First Tabernacle was not yet removed This is the First Light 2. Light God in this Shadowy Image of himself is that Earth the Divine Earth out of which the first Man is made with a Divinity resting upon him Gen. 1. 26. God said let us make man in our Image after our Likenâ—ss The word Image in Hebrew Tselem seemeth to be a contract of two words Tsd Maveth the Shadow of Death It is used Psal. 39. 6. Man walketh in a vain show they are disquieted in vain or in vanity That other word used Gen 1. 26. Our Likeness signisieth similitude silence an imagination a cutting off Both import thus much that the Divine Image the Mother of the first Adam in whose Womb he was formed out of whose Womb he sprung forth upon whose breasts he hung was a shadow a silent vanishing Shadow of the Eternal word in which that slept as in its Night or Death As Dreams are Imaginations in the Fancy which act their parts while the Man sleepeth such was this Image after which Man with the whole World was made This was the Mother-Earth which broughâ— him forth which beareth him which nurseth him in her Bosom and dandleth him on her Knees We read Gen. 2. 7. God formed Man of the dust of the ground The word Ground is the same with Adam It signifieth in its root a sparkling Lustre and Ruddiness like that of the best Rubies to express which it is also used A sweet and glorious Light shining thorow a dark shade like a rosie morning or the Sun setting red in a lovely evening because being low he shineth with his bright Beams thorow the rising mists and vapours of the Earth is properly intended by this word The Light of the God-Head sparkling in a Shadow of himself glowing under a Cloud like a living Ruby from the Rock of Eternity this was Adamah the Ground the Mother of Adam God formed Adam of the dust of this ground The learned Jews paraphrase after this manner upon the dust here As the skilful Apothecary beateth his Spices to a small and â—ine powder that by a more curious and exact mixture of them he may make them into a rich ointment or cordial so God in the smallest and least parts perfectly mingleth and uniteth all the Principles Powers Forms and Vertues of the several Creatures as they lay together in their first and fairest Image in their First-born state in himself Of these thus tempered he sormeth Man the Second Image of the whole Creation next to that in his own Person Thus Man is as a living Crystal in which the entire Form of all the world visible and invisible is seen transparently in the whole Glass and in every point of the Glass by a ravishing concurrence of all parts in each the mâ—nutest part with a most beautiful and divine Harmony arising from the accurate Mixture of that Precious Dust. Thus Man is an Universal musick where the well-measured Motions and sweet Sounds of all the Strings meet in every skilful Touch of every String as a New Circle of Heavenly Melody and Delights spread from a New Center of Life and Love Thus I pass from the Second to the Third Light 3. Light The First Adam was the Golden Head of the First Creation next to God in Jesus Christ. St. John in the 1. chapter of his Gospel describeth the order and manner in which the unfaln World came forth from God The Word which was Jesus Christ as He is God the Essential and Eternal Image of the God-Head was made by His own Almighty Power according to the Unsearchable Counsel of His own All-Gracious and All-Glorious Will a Shadowy Image of Himself As upon the Vail of the most Holy Place were wrought in pleasant Colours the Figures of those Cherubims which stood within the Vail shining in a rich Substance of Massy Gold So was it in the most Holy Person of our Saviour the true and living Temple of the Divine Nature The Glories of the Essential Image figured themselves upon this Mystical Vail of the Shadowy Image So the Beloved Apostle saith to us while he openeth the Mysteries
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
God in the Valley of the shadow of Death in the Grave As a Sun at night casting up its Cloud and foretelling a fair day so is the Death of a Saint the Glorified Body of a Saint being one Spirit with the Glorified Body of his Beloved casteth up the Cloud of this Natural Body which had lien as the Cloud of Death upon it and now immediately maketh a â—air and Heavenly Day without the interposal or succession of any Night The Glorified Body of Christ and his Bride are hid under this Body oâ— Flesh like the Sun under a thick Mist. It is long glowing and casting glympses of itself thorow the Mist. The Mist groweth thinner The heat and light of Divine Love Beauty and Joy groweth stronger At last the Mist is quite gone drunk up into the Sun The Sun shineth out with open Face and the Freedom of all its Beams 3. Prince That which this Body is to a Saint here that his Glorified Jesus is to â—im in Death We take pleasure rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord saith St. Paul 2 Corin. 5. 8. These words Absent Present relate in Greek to a Country a People Such a presence as the Soul hath with the Body in Lie it hath with its Lord and Love in Death Here thy Body is the Country the Region of thy Soul Thy Body is the Image into which thy Soul is formed in which alone it appeareth to itself or others All thy Relations Companions Contentments are Images presented unto thee in this Glass and Impressions made upon thee by the Images appearing in this Glass All this World is nothing to thee but as it is an Appearance rising up in thy Body which by vertue of the Personal Union raiseth a suitable Act of Life in thy Soul All this World to thee is only a diversity of Forms into which it is varied and a diversity of Impressions made upon thy Soul by this variety of Forms In Death this Glass is broken this Image vanisheth this Country disappeareth like an Enchantment Thy Glorified Jesus cometh in the place of this Body and is a Heavenly a Divine Body to thee Thy Glorified Jesus is that Beautiful Pure and Immortal Form in which thou appearest to thy self and to all Thy Relations Companions Entertainments are the Glorified Person of thy Jesus varied into Innumerable Forms of Love Light and Loveliness All thy Motions Affections and Pleasures are in Sympathy and Consort with thy Jesus by vertue of the mystical and unexpressible Union between thee and him All acts of Life in thee all Touches upon thy Spirit are the kisses of his Divine Mouth Myrrhe dropping from those Lillies of the Heavenly Paradise his Lips This is thy Country thy People thy World the Fulness of the God-Head dwelling bodily in Christ. Spring for joy O dying Saint The World thy Country thine own People the Body into which thou now comest is the Fulness of all Divine Light Divine Life the Fulness of all Divine Forms Loves Joys and Glories dwelling together with the Fulness of a Divine Harmony in the Glorified Body of thy Beloved This hath drunk up into itself thy former Body with all its acquaintances and entertainments the former world with all its furniture PART II. Psal. 45. 2. Thou art fairer than the Children of Men Grace is poured forth in thy lips Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever I divided these words into three parts 1. THe Loveliness of our Lord Iesus Thou art fairer than the Children of Men. 2. The Love of Christ The Love of this Lovely One Grace is poured forth in thy lips 3. The Seal of the God-Head of a Divine Blessedness and of Eternity upon both these the Loveliness and the Love in this Glorified Person of our Saviour Therefore God hath blessed thee for ever I have finished my discourse on the first part I now take in hand the second part I have spoken something of the Loveliness of our Beloved One as I have by any Beam from his Beauties been enlightned to some glimmering vision of them and quickned to a weak expression of that which I have seen Now I am to speak of his Love as the Grace and Sweetness of it shall pour forth itself from his Lips into mine by a Spiritual kiss from the Mouth of this Heavenly Bridegroom Grace is poured forth in his Lips The rich composition of this Heavenly-sweet Sentence is made up of three rich Materials 1. Grace 2. Effusion or the pouring forth of this Grace 3. The Lips of the Lord Jesus These are to be explained 1. Grace This in the Language of the Scripture signifieth three Things 1. Grace is Love For the Grace of God which bringeth salvation to all Men hath appeared Tit. 2. 11. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward Men hath appeared Tit. 3. 4. That which in one place the Apostle calleth Grace in the other he expresseth by kindness and love Grace is love in its Fountain freest and sweetest 2. Grace is Loveliness or Beauty Prov. 31. 30. Favour is deceitful and Beauty is vain Favour there is Grace It is the same word in Hebrew with this in my Text. Grace is Beauty with its most powerful charms as it toucheth every Spirit answereth every desire maketh all things answer it and dance to its Musick So the Hebrew word imports 3. Grace is Joy or pleasure a fair and smiling Child begotten between these two amiable and ever-pleasant Parents Love and Beauty St. Paul commandeth the Saints to sing making melody to God with Grace in their hearts that is with Divine Joy kindled into a Heavenly Flame from the Love and Loveliness of the Lord Jâ—sus shining forth there unitedly and concentring their joint Beams in the Beloved Spirit Thus Grace is all three Love Loveliness and Joy all these with a peculiar and most eminent heightning as the Sunshine is the Grace of a Garden and the Fâ—owers in it So Grace in the sense of the Gospel is Love Beauty Delight with the God-Head the Sun of Spirits peculiarly and nakedly shining in them But principally and primitively Grace is Love Then it is Loveliness as that is the first Birth and lively Image of Love in which it bringeth forth itself to its own Eye and embraces then sporteth with it as its Spouse It is Pleasure as that springeth from the Union of these two and is their mutual Life and Perfection each in other Grace is a Tree where Love is the Root and Sap Loveliness the fair Tree with its Body and Branches rising out of this Root whose Sap formeth itself into this Beautiful Figure Joy is the Fruit into which the sweet Sap of Love from its Root thorow the Body and Branches of its shining Beauties digesteth itself unto a perfect admirable and Divine Maturity to be the Food and Feast of all Lives all Spirits in Time and Eternity It is Love smiling in the face of every Beauty which is
hath quickened us together in Christ v. 5. He hath raised us together made us to sit together in Heavenly Places in him v. 6. Thus you see the Absoluteness the Compleatness of Finishing Love as well as of Preventing and Assisting Love You see the Finishing Love of the Father poured forth with all Fulness in our Blessed Saviour You see Divine Love in the Bosom of your Beloved Alone Beginning Alone Continuing the Work of Grace Alone in the Purity Power Simplicity of Free Grace Finishing Perfecting All in Glory I will make this clear to you by One Scripture more 2 Tim. 1. 9. he hath saved us not according to works which we have done but according to his own Purpose and Grace given to us in Christ before the World was Who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to Light by his Appearance in the Gospel Behold this Heavenly Sight Believe rejoyce and wonder A Saint is a Spiritual Building of all Heavenly Graces and Glories It is entirely composed thorowout of Free Grace of Pure Love The Foundation of it is laid in the Fair Colours of Divine Love all the Rooms the several Stories the Furniture the Riches the Entertainment is of Pure Love The Roof is laid with the Precious stones of Pure Love The whole Work of a Saint's Salvation the Materials the Form the Proportions the Measures of the Whole and of every Part are Free Grace Pure Love He hath saved us according to his Purpose and Grace given us in Christ before the World was That Word Purpose signifieth properly the Fore-laying of a thing This Divine Bâ—ilding of Love this Heavenly Frame of Life and Immortality which is the True Form of a Saint was set up in the Glorious Person of our Jesus from Eternity All that is done in time is the unvailing and Discovery of this Heavenly and Eternal Building by Degrees according to the Measure of the Appearance of the Lord Jesus in us in whose Person and Spirit this Frame standeth as a Living Precious Corner-stone out of which it is grown up as a most pleasant Situation which encompasseth it on every paâ—t This Palace this Temple of Divine Love of Light of Life of Immortality is Eternal in the Heavens in Christ. Time Flesh Sin the whole Work of this Creation are a Vail of Darkness and Death cast upon It. As Jesus Christ shineth forth upon the Soul in the Gospel he casteth off this Vail he abolisheth this Death he discovereth and bringeth forth into the Clearness and Sweetness of Its own Divine Light this Divine Frame of Life and Immortality which is the True Saint the New Jerusalem the Bride the Lamb's wife coming down out of Heaven with her Beloved ready trim'd How manifest how full is the Finishing Love of God in Christ The whole Being of a Saint is a Building where all the Materials the Work the Finishing is Pure Love Pure Love finished all its Works in this Building before it began the World from Eternity and set it up in the Person of Christ. Pure Love cleanseth it from the Dust of Time the Filth of Flesh and bringeth it forth into the clear Lights of Grace of Glory which are the Brightness of its own Spiritual Beauties in the Evangelical Appearances and Out-Shinings of Jesus Christ. Use 1. Receive the Love of God in Christ. 2. Resign your selves to the Love of God in Christ. 1. Receive the Love of God in Christ. It is a sweet and easy work For this Love giveth reception to itself in the Soul When the Sugar taketh in the Wine In truth the Wine into which the Sugar is cast or which is poured upon it worketh itself into the Sugar then melteth and dissolveth it into One Body with itself until you can no more distinguish between the Sugar and the Wine So the Soul lieth in the midst of Divine Love Love in its own way by its own force worketh and melteth itself into the Soul until it have melted and wrought the Soul into One Spirit One Love with itself Divine Love is received into thy Soul as thy Soul is received into thy Body by Bringing it forth New out of its own Bosom by Comprehending it in itself by Forming it unto a Divine Image of Itself by Inhabiting Filling Acting it by Delighting in it as its Daughter Sister Spouse as its self multiplyed Receive this Love which thus receiveth you giveth reception to itself in you 2. Resign your selves to Divine Love This Love worketh all your works all its own works in you and for you all Works of Love and of Loveliness Philosophy teacheth us that all Colours are Light mingled with Shade in various degrees and manners until it break up thorow the Shades and drink up the Shades into One Pure Brightness The Gospel teacheth us that all Graces are Divine Love shining variously and gradually forth thorow the Darknesses of our Spirits until by a sweet and Heavenly Force as the Fire of the Divine Life kindled from the Throne of God it burn out and burn up all those Darknesses Distances Deâ—ilements Enmities into One Eternal Flame of Pure Love of Perfect Joy St. James teachâ—th us c. 1. 4. If Patience have its perfect work it shall make us perfect wanting nothing This is the same thing as if he had said Let Divine Love Preventing Assisting Finishing Love have their Perfect work These will make you Perfect wanting nothing This is the Grace of Patience the Love of God in Christ by its own force insinuating itself into our Souls by its own Charms alluring our Souls tempering them to a harmonious Repose in it a sweet entire Resignation to it until it have wrought out and finished its own Glories upon it Patience hath its Perfect Work when Love hath its Perfect work Love hath its Perfect Work in us when we oppose nothing of the Devil to it when we mingle nothing of our own with it O that I were indeed a Minister of the Gospel Then I should minister the Spirit to you which is Love The Fountain and the Sea of Love Then while I speak of Love you would feel the Holy Ghost in his own proper Form in the Form and Fulness of Divine Love coming down upon you entering into you forming himself in you unto a Free Reception of himself a Full Resignation to himself until he had Finished his own most Lovely Form of Heavenly Love in you Use 3. Be aware that you must receive the Love of God in Christ thorow Death St Paul admonisheth us that as many as are baptised into Christ are baptised into the Similitude of his Death Rom. 6. 3. If we will be baptised into the Love we must be baptised into the Death of the Lord Jesus When Moses son was circumcised Zipporah his wife said to him A bloody husband hast thou been to me Some interpret the Words as they run in the Hebrew Thou hast been to me a Husband in Blood So they are the Solemn words
in their full beauty and sweetness ever fresh never fading never failing As fast as one is gathered another springeth up in its room These Immortal flowers of divine love grow here for thee They have thy name written upon them They bend and bow themselves towards thee They invite thy hand to gather them They are ripe in every season and gathered with the least touch of thy spirit Thou who hast a Spirit black and burning with the deepest guilt take the flower of justifying love stick it in thy bosom This will take out all the heat of pain and take away all the deformity and stain from thy spirit Thou who labourest under the disease of any corruption See here the flower of sanctifying love Carry this in thine hand in thine heart It is a powerful a pleasent remedy against every lust or passion Doth the Instability of thy spirit the uncertainty of thy spiritual condition afflict thee The flower of electing love hath a soveraign vertue in it to establish and â—ix thine heart in a triumphant peace and joy above all changes or fears Art thou melancholy is thine heart cast down within thee for some apparent reason or thou kno west not why look upon this pleasant flower of comforting love smell to it wear it in thy bosom It shineth with a heavenly lustre which recreateth the Eyes and infuseth strange joy into the heart It breatheth forth a sweetness from it which will make you think your self in Paradise or kissing those blessed Cheeks of your heavenly lover your Jesus which are Beds of Spices It hath a spirit in it which is the extract of all Cordials which hath all comforting vertues in it which is the soveraign Comforter of hearts and spirits the only causer of delight and pleasure on Earth or in Heaven If any one be dejected with a sense of shame let him make himself a Nose-gay of these three Flowers regenerating adopting glorifying love Every one of these casteth a wonderful light from it which will make thee to see thy self in the unity of the eternal Spirit in the form of the Son of God Thou wilt see the whole face of things as a glorious Heaven round about thee all full of bright and shining Angels encompassing thee guarding thee attending upon thee as the heir of God Jesus in glory walking with thee hand in hand as his Brother God himself beholding thee with an unmoved and full Eye of esteem wonder and complacency as his onely one the Object of all his love the Ground of all his joy The State of a Saints Soul and Body in Death THe peculiar consolations and joys of Death to a Saint pour forth themselves into ten distinct channels or streams 1. Death is no dissolution to the Soul or Body of a Saint but a restitution and return of both to liberty peace and perfection 2. Both descend no more but ascend in Death 3. Death hath in it no melancholy overcast or unpleasant darkning to the Soul or Body but a sweet unexpected surprising and ravishing increase of a pure divine and triumphant light circling in and shining through all 4. Death casts no deformity upon either part of a Saint but cloaths both with an heavenliness amiableness and beauty 5. Death is no streightning or imprisonment to Body or Soul but a blessed enlarging of both to a divine state and freedom 6. The Death of a Saint hath nothing bitter in it but is a spring of pure sweetnesses and pleasures dividing itself into every part and making all the garden of God 7. There is nothing of the Devil in the Death of a Saint but Christ risen and glorified is all fills all and shines thorow all 8. Death hath nothing of wrath in it but is all divine love unvailing itself 9. There is nothing of Death in the Death of a Saint but life and immortality unclouded and shining forth clearly 10. Death is no other thing to a Saint than a heightning of his spirituality making him all thorough-out spiritual purely spiritual without any mixture unchangeably spiritual without any interruptions inconstancies or darkintervals 1. Death is no dissolution to the Soul or Body of a Saint but a restitution and return of both to liberty peace and perfection 2. Corinth 5. 1. St. Paul expresseth this ground of confidence and joy in Death For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens It is the observation of learned Divines that the Greek word here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we render to be dissolved signifieth to take up ourâ—Inn from that circumstance of unloosing the Horses and taking them out of the Waggon or Chariot to bring them into the Inn and Stable that there they may be at their liberty to rest and feed and lie down From this word upon this ground an Inn or House of reception refreshing for Travellers hath its name in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 At our Birth which is the morning of this life and our entrance upon our Journy through this weary world our Souls and Bodies are joyned to this fleshly Image by the natural spirit the spirit of this world as Horses put into a Waggon to which they are fastned by their Harnes and Traces The Body is as the fore-horse but the Soul as the filler which draws most and bears the chief weight All the day long of this life we draw this Waggon heavy laden with all sorts of temptations and troubles thorow deep ways of mire and sand This only is our comfort that the divine will which is love itself in its perfection as a hand put forth from Heaven thorow a Cloud at our Birth put us into this Waggon and governs us all the day In the evening of our life at the end of our Journey Death is the same divine will as a naked hand of pure love shining forth from an open heaven of clear light and glory taking our Souls and both Bodies out of the Waggon and Traces of this â—leshly Image and Spirit and leading them immediately into their Inn into a place of freedom rest and refreshing into the unity of the eternal spirit into the Bosom of our Lord Jesus Obj. But before I proceed any farther I will indeavour to make my whole way more clear by answering an objection which perhaps already ariseth in most of your thoughts You may be ready to say Is this your meaning as you seem clearly to express it that the Bodies also of the Saints suffer no dissolution in Death but return immediately to a state of purity and perfection This seemeth to contradict the common sense of all the faith of the Saints and the plain letter of the Scriptures Do we not with our Eyes see every day the dead Bodies of the best Persons thrown into the Grave turning to Corruption and Putrefaction either before or in the Grave dissolved to Worms and
he that hath suffered in the Flesh hath ceased from Sin The Holy Ghost clearly relates to the death of the Lord Jesus and of a Saint He speaks of the time perfectly past he that hath suffered in the Flesh that is he that by dying hath compleated and finished his sufferings in the flesh he hath ceased from sin He that dyeth in union with Christ in the vertue of his death and in a conformity to it in the first moment of death ceaseth from all the Evils of Sin the Guilt the Power the Pollution the Punishment and so from Death itself See the inseparable connexion between the Flesh Sufferings Sin and Death All these continue together and cease together O you that hear or read understand these things and lay them to heart This Flesh which is so dear to us which we are so loath and unwilling to part with which we tender as our nearest and dearest self is our only division from our self a bed of Snakes and Enmity It is the root the seat the food the fewel the fruit of Sin and suffering and death This Fleshly Principle and Sense this worldly Light and Image which we account Life and the Sweetness of Life in which we think all the dear Treasures and Joys of Life are comprehended is no other than a deep dark and miery Dungeon where we lie in the midst of the hissings stings and poysons of innumerable Toads and Serpents This Sin which so easily besetteth us and winds itself into our bosoms is that weight which presseth us and sinketh us down that chain of Darkness which tyeth us down and fastneth us here below in the horrible Pit and Dungeon of this Fleshly Principle and Sense this Fleshly this worldly Spirit and Image This Death which seemeth so dreadful to us which we so tremble at and fly from is that dearest Friend come down from Heaven from the bosom of God that beautiful hand put forth from the secret of Eternal Life Love and Glory which taketh off this weight which knocketh off this chain of Darkness and restoreth to us our silver Wings and golden Feathers by which in a moment we fly forth from this Cage of unclean Spirits this Dungeon of the Fleshly Principle and Sense never to return into them any more O Believers fear not fly not from Sufferings Be willing to sacrifice and offer up this Flesh as a whole Burnt-Offering in the Flame of Sufferings unto Death Kiss Death as a lovely Bride as those perfumed Flowers those Beds of Spices the Cheeks of the Heavenly Bride-groom mentioned in the Canticles For the Flesh the fleshly Principle and Sense the Spirit and Image of this Flesh of this World together with the Sufferings Sin and Death end all at once in the Death of a Saint in the very first moment of his Death A Holy Divine when he was dying lay upon his Death-Bed singing this often over Now I shall sin no more We read Isaiah 59. 2. That our Iniquities separate between us and our God our Sins hide his face from us Death is indeed a separation but it is not the separation of the Soul from the Body The separation of the Soul or the Body from God this is Death indeed this alone is Death This world this worldly Spirit and Image is the Curtain or Vail the Partition wall between us and the Face or Bosom of our Heavenly Bridegroom our Lord Jesus So saith St. Paul Our Gospel is hid to those whose Eyes the God of this world hath blinded that they should not behold the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face or Person of Christ. The Fleshly Principle or Sense is the unpassable gulf between us and the unsearchable Treasures of the Divine Nature of the Blessed Persons in the Divine Nature the Father the Eternal Word the Holy Spirit Sin digs up and keeps open this Gulf sin builds up this Partition wall Sin draws this Curtain between us and the Divine Beauties the Divine Blessedness O dying Saints break forth into singings O all ye Saints rejoice and triumph at every thought at every approach of Death Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoyced to see it saith our Lord Jesus in the Gospel The word rejoyce in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is he danced a Galliard When the Virgin Mary with Christ in her Womb came to the Mother of John the Baptist the Babe within her sprung for joy Thus O Believers let your hearts spring for joy within you at the approach and presence of Death So Death coming to you as a beautiful and a heavenly Virgin with Jesus Christ in its Womb not after the Flesh but in the Glory of the Spirit to be delivered of him immediately into your Bosoms as a Bridegroom that at once in the same moment appears to you in Glory makes you worthy of himself by being like himself and one Glory with himself makes all things Life Immortality Glory round about you Behold the day of your Death both afar off near at hand as the day of Christ as a day which the Lord Jesus makes rising himself as the true Sun upon you so iurning this Sun into Darkness before the brightness of his own appearance enlightning all within you and without you with another Light infinitely greater infinitely sweeter At the sight of this day as Abraham did so let your hearts spring with a pleasant lightness and dance Galliards in your Bosom Now sing of Death and say in your songs every one of you as you lie upon your Death-beds I shall sin no more I shall be in Flesh no more no more for ever in this Fleshly Principle and sense which hath so long bewitched me and held me by their â—orceries in the House of Whoredoms and of Death I shall be in this world so loathsome and so hateful to me I shall see this world and this Image of things which hath been so long so tempting and tormenting to me no more for ever Farewel for ever all distances all divisions between me and my Jesus my God Henceforth shall I with open face in my Soul and my Body behold the open and unvailed Face of God Henceforth shall I with my naked Soul and Body lie for ever in the naked Bosom of my Glorified Saviour my King and Husband giving him of my Loves drinking in abundantly his Loves and bringing forth continually by him all the Spiritual and Heavenly fruits of Life and Immortality The morning is called Rosy-fingred because the morning Beams as Rosy-fingers seem to open the Curtains of the night and let in day upon us Death is to a Saint of a truth this Rosy fingered morning which by sweet beams breaking forth from on high draws aside the Curtains of this night of Flesh and lets in upon us the Eternal day which at once in a moment overspreads our Souls and Bodies and fills all things to us with its blessed Light making us and
drop upon your hearts four brief exhortations 1. O that all Men would love the King of Saints the Lord Jesus It is he alone who subdues the King of Terror that is Death and is more than a conqueror over him making him the King of delights He changeth the Region and Kingdom of Death which is the Principality of the Devil into the Kingdom of God which is Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost 2. Set a value upon the union with the Lord Jesus by faith Ask seek dig for this by day and by night in Prayer in the Word in the Society of the Saints in every ordinance in every creature that you may believe in the Lord Jesus and that you may be united to him by believing Let nothing discourage you in this pursuit and expectation The Lord Jesus hath given himself for you even unto Death that you may be his in the sweetest and most intimate union He giveth himself to you in his life of Glory that he may be yours by an immediate and entire union He giveth his Spirit to you to be the Maker and the band of this union to work faith in you and make you Believers He is now with you now in you in the fulness of his merits righteousness glory love and Spirit Now this moment open the Eyes of your minds and behold him in the midst of you open your hearts and take him in cast your selves into his open arms and heart cleave to him by believing So even this moment shall your Souls and Bodies both which are naturally the Members of this Harlot the Flesh and the World which are naturally Dens of Thieves and Devils become the Members of the Lord Jesus and the Temples of the Holy Ghost The Lord Jesus shall be in your Body itself as in a Member of himself a Fountain of living waters even in Death and in the Grave making it there a Paradise a Garden for God and for all blessed Spirits The Holy Ghost shall be not only in your Souls but in your Bodies also as in his Holy Temple even in the darkness of Death itself filling it with his Glory and moving over it with his Doves Wings the Wings of Eternal Love 3. Make it your chief work and end to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus What care and pains do we take to grow in riches yet riches profit not in the day of Wrath. To know him is eternal life With what diligence do we pursue the wisdom of this world Yet saith Solomon as dyeth the Fool so dyeth the wise Man If thou gain and grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus this is a wisdom which will make thy Soul and Body both shine with a Light of Glory and Immortality even in Death itself Solomon saith that when understanding enters into our Souls wisdom will be sweeter than hony to our tast O what new tast and rellishes of new and unexpressible sweetnesses doth the Soul still meet with which is still growing in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus What a sweet tast and rellish of Death beyond all the delights of Life doth the knowledge of Jesus Christ give unto us representing it as a Feast of pleasant things to our Bodies also as well as to our Souls When thou understandest the fellowship and vertue of Christs Death in thy Death thou shalt see Death in thy Soul and in thy Body as the Carkass of a dead Lyon torn in pieces by that true Samson the Lord Jesus whither the Father himself and Christ and the Holy Spirit with all the blessed Angels resort as Bees to their Hive laying there their Hony and their Hony-comb for thee to eat 4. O you that are Christs love Death Death is now become but a shadow of Death True life with all the joys of life vails itself beneath that shadow If you knew the love of the Father the Glory of the Lord Jesus the joys of the Holy Ghost in Death if you knew what the Death of a Saint were how precious you would ask it continually of God that he would hasten it in the time thereof You would cry out continually as Sisera's Mother did why doth his Chariot stay Death is not now a shadow of Death but a living delightful and divine shadow cast from the glorious face of our Lord Jesus under which our Souls and Bodies lie together as in a sweet and divine sleep in his Bosom in which sleep all the joys and glories of Heaven and Eternity are present with us as a divine Dream out of which we wake at the Resurrection finding all to be true eternally true and the sweet shadow and dream themselves swallowed up into a bright clear and full enjoyment Thus according to St. Pauls Language doth the very Body of a Saint when he dies sleep in the Lord. Thus is death to the Soul and Body of a Saint as the Curtains of Purple round about Solomons Bed where the Saint lies now in the embraces of the true Solomon himself the King of Righteousness and King of Peace or round about the Chariot of Solomon which had within it a Throne of Gold and was paved with Love As the Sun by its influence forms a precious Mine of Gold in the bowels of the Earth which afterward being taken out and separated from its dross becomes pure and incorruptible and is made a Crown for the Head of a great King so the Lord Jesus by his Spirit frames a new a heavenly Soul and Body in a Saint which are both his precious Members his Temples of Gold But while this life lasts they are in this Body of Sin and Death as Gold in the Oar. In the moment of Death the Lord Jesus takes them both out separates them entirely from the dross of all earthliness and carnality makes them pure and shining Diadems in the hand of God 2. Propos. The whole Person of a Saint in Soul and Body at the moment of Death is gathered up entirely into a Spiritual Principle and so into a Spiritual Sense and so into a Divine Life and Peace This followeth of necessity upon the former Proposition which I have already proved by the Scripture For if a Saint in Death be gathered up entirely out of a Carnal Principle he is gathered up entirely into a Spiritual Principle There is now no middle between these two We read in Scripture of the divided state of a Saint between freedom and bondage liberty and captivity the War between the Spirit and the Flesh while he lives on Earth Accordingly we meet with exhortations to abide in Christ to walk in the Spirit if we live in the Spirit But when a Saint dies we read of him and that with a peculiar relation to his Body that he sleeps in the Lord that he sleeps in Christ. O sweet and full expression O beautiful and blessed State Now is a Saint with his Body as well as his Soul alone in Christ entirely in Christ for
his Heart continually bringing him forth into his whole Person and Life with an increasing clearness and fulness As the Object is to the Faculty and to the Soul so is Jesus Christ to a Spiritual Person his Pattern his Object his Food his Feast which spreads itself quite thorow his Person and Life which all throughout turns into Life Strength Beauty Cheerfulness and Joy to him 5. A spiritual person in a sweet and sealing manner sees the Spirit himself presenting the Lord Jesus to him within himself in a spiritual Glory feels the Spirit himself springing up immediately within him in all sights of Christ in all his changes and growths into Christ. He sees and feels this Spirit to be Jesus Christ himself He sees and feels this Spirit and this Jesus to be in himself and one Spirit with himself So the verse forementioned runs We all with open face beholding as in a Looking-glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the likeness of the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord or according to the Greek by the Lord that Spirit These are the sweet and blessed Advantages of a Spiritual State I will add some few and short Directions to this State 1. Look to the New Birth in You. See that you be born again that you be born from above that you be born of the Spirit that this which is born in you be Spirit Jesus Christ saith That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit This only is the New Birth Newness is only in the Eternal Spring the Spirit 2. Take care of your Union with Christ that it be a Spiritual Union that you be united to Christ as he is risen from the Dead and in Glory as he is a Spirit the King and Bridegroom of Spirits that you be united to Christ in the Spiritual Man that your Union be a Spiritual Marriage that you be one Spirit in the Unity of the Eternal Spirit which is Love 3. Pray for the Spirit for a Spiritual Understanding for the Knowledge of things in the Spirit as they are Spirit and Life and so alone Truth Suck in the Spirit by day and by night from the lips of Christ from the kisses of his mouth 4. Die to every thing of the Flesh that you may live in the Spirit Bear about in your Bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus that the Life also of the Lord Jesus according to the Spirit may be manifested in your mortal Bodies At the young Phoenix is said to spring new and fresh out of the Ashes of the Old One so doth the Spirit in the newness of an Heavenly and Immortal Glory spring out of the Grace of Christ. 5. Live purely live in Love These two Purity and Love are the principal fruits of the Spirit by which the Spirit himself is drawn down and held in our Hearts being fed and delighted with them Every kind and degree of impurity and enmity quencheth the Spirit and maketh him to withdraw himself into Heaven again The Scripture saith The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit to bring forth its own Beauties Delights and Fruits all over the Spirit of Man in the place of the Eternal Spirit The Scripture saith also That the Flesh envyeth against the Spirit The Flesh hath an envy and an envious malice to see the Spirit with its Eternal Glories Joys and Fruits to flourish in the Soul 6. Lastly Take heed of thinking that you know enough He that thinks he knows any thing knows nothing as he ought to know it saith St. Paul He that thinks he knows any thing knows things only after the Letter which is a knowledge of shadows only and a shadow of knowledge This is that knowledge which pusseth up which swels a man with a windy conceit of knowledge But that knowledge which is from the Spirit as its Fountain and in the Spirit as its air and element and of the Spirit as its only object this makes a man at the highest degree of his knowledge on Earth to be sensible that all his knowledge is but as the light of the night a light shining in a dark place not the day-star and the Sun itself risen upon him This man thinks himself at best as a door-keeper only or as the Hebrew word signifieth one standing at the threshold of the House of God who looketh in at a distance and hath only a weak glimmering prospect of the Glories there but is not yet entered into the Light of those Glories to behold them as they are to know them as he ought to know them and is to know them He therefore as a new born Babe from the Womb of the Spirit keeps his Eye ever fixed with wonder and pleasure upon the light of the Spirit and ever thirsts to drink in more and more the sweet milk of this Light The Subject of our discourse hath been the passage of a Saint by Death not only in his Soul but in his Body also into a State of purity pleasure perfection and immortality One of the objections against this was taken from common sense to which Death presents the Bodies of the holiest Persons liveless ghastly dissolving to dust We have answered this objection by a distinction between a twofold sense Carnal and Spiritual But this objection was enforced from the Body of Christ which was a rueful and bloody spectacle in Death which lay three days in the silence darkness and restraint of the Grave It is necessary therefore to say something particularly to the State of Christs Body in Death by the application of this distinction to that also I shall ground this discourse upon that Scripture Luke 12. 50. They are the words of Christ I have a Baptism to be Baptized with and how am I streightned till it be over This Baptism is generally and as I humbly conceive rightly interpreted to be the sufferings of Christ at his Death The Baptism of Christ and the accomplishment of that Baptism were both at the time of his Death The sense of this Baptism before it came was an unexpressible streightning or affliction and oppression to the Soul of Christ. He cries out how am I streightned The words thus opened afford this observation The Lord Jesus had his greatest trouble and his greatest Triumph at the time of his Death Then was this bloody Baptism and then was the blessed accomplishment of this Baptism I shall open this in seven Propositions whereof 5 set forth the trouble the other two the Triumph of Christ at his Death 1. Propos. It was the most glorious and eternal Person of God himself in two Natures Divine and Humane which was our Jesus 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 one Natural and Temporary the other Supernatural and Eternal 3. Propos. As this Eternal Person our Jesus with his God-Head in the Humane Nature stood in a Natural and Temporary
which the Fathers Person shines forth in his Person as in a new Heaven with new and increasiâ—â— Beauties O you that are Followers of Christ what a mystery of Spiritual Joy and Heavenly Glory is there in the life of a Saint if this be to be a Saint to walk on Earth as Christ walked that is in a Spiritual Principle in the midst of the Natural Principle and Fleshly Image of things governing comprehending seeing handling rellishing all in the Divine Light Beauty and Sweetness of the Eternal Spirit When the blackest Cloud of melancholy rests upon thy Spirit when the sharpest Sword of Grief pierceth thy Heart retire into thy Spiritual Principle there thou shalt be as on Mount Tabor the Mount of Transfiguration where the Face of thy God shall be as a pleasant Sun of Joy and Glory shining forth in its strength within thee and the whole Image of things in thee and round about thee as a Garment of Light all weaved and wrought with the freshest and purest Beams of this Sun in all living and immortal Figures of the highest Joys and Glories 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 thorow his whole Person as it lived in a Humane Soul and Body were highest at his Death The Lord Jesus saith the Prince of this World cometh This is your hour and the power or principality of Darkness The Devil came now to make his two last and most furious assaults upon the Lord Jesus in the Garden and upon the Cross. He therefore comes with all the powers of Darkness and Legions of Devils with all the blackest and most dreadful Furniture and force of Wrath from Hell below from Earth and Heaven above as the Prince of this World and the Prince of Darkness The Battel was so sore against the Lord Jesus that he himself who was the Wisdom and Power of God was amazed He who was the eternal delights of his Father day by day cries out My Soul is very sorrowful even unto Death The word in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth an excess of sorrow and a surrounding sorrow All things round about the Lord Jesus were hung with a blackness of Darkness and amazing horrours that he himself who bears up the weight of all things could hardly sustain the weight of his own fears and sorrows or sustain himself in Life under them He falls beneath them to the ground His whole Person is so prest and opprest with them that through the agony of his Spirits the boiling blood is strained forth through all the parts of his Body He cries to his Father thrice Angels are sent from Heaven to strengthen him and comfort him But after this the conflict upon the Cross was yet sharper Now the Prince of Darkness grows desperate knowing that this is his last effort and that now at once he fights for his Kingdom Liberty and Life that his whole Kingdom of Darkness and his Person too depend upon this one Fight The Earth-quake the rending of the Rocks the total Eclipse of the Sun and the Universal Darkness upon the face of the whole Earth were Types of what Christ the Prince of Glory and the Devil the Prince of Darkness suffered in this last Conflict the like to which never was before nor shall ever be The whole frame of things shook and trembled under the Feet of the Lord Jesus and round about him The Rocks all the supports of his Soul all the Foundations and Pillars of his strength and life were rent in pieces and dissolved The face of the Creature the face of Heaven the face of his Father were all covered with a thick a threatning and an amazing Darkness as in a dreadful Tempest above the course and force of nature The Lord of Life in whom all things subsist is now sinking and ready to give up all for lost How deeply was his Heart pierced how cruelly wounded how were every glympse of Light every drop of Comfort intercepted and with-held when he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me What potent inchantment from Hell was this what power of Darkness what infusion of Wrath what separation ten thousand times more bitter than Death which so wrought that he who is God himself seems divided from himself and totally deserted by all the power and sweet lights of the God-Head Thus you see in this 5th Proposition the trouble of Christ at its height In the two following Propositions you shall see that notwithstanding this dreadful storm in the evening and latest hour of his life this beautiful Sun in his dying moment as in the close itself of the day casts up its cloud comes forth Triumphantly and no night follows Before we pass to the other Propositions let us make a few short observations upon these 1. See how dreadful and hateful an evil Sin is by the effects of it in the Person of God himself our Lord Jesus Let not that be a light thing to us which lay with so great weight upon him neither let us be secure in our Lusts Vanities Covetousness Sloath playing with these which were so many Serpents in the Bosom of Christ and shot deadly stings into his Heart Can we stand under those things which had almost sunk the Son of God into despair and Eternal Darkness It is true God brings good out of the evil of Sin order out of its disorder and reconciles all into a beautiful Harmony of Divine Love and Joy But how by how dear a price by how precious an atonement by how costly how cruel how bloody a Sacrifice by how violent a conflict between all the powers of light and darkness at once by how dreadful a dissolution of the whole frame of things with the blackest Tempest of Divine Wrath from above by what horrours of Death in its ugliest shape with its most venemous stings and all this in the Person of God himself our Jesus 2. Be good Soldiers of the Lord Jesus Endure hardships Endure the fight of Sufferings Think not strange to have the Clouds blackest and the Storm greatest with Thunders and Lightnings round about you in your latest hour in old age and death Thus you bear the Cross of Christ. Thus you fight under the Banner of Love A Husband in Bloods art thou to me saith the Wife of Moses to him concerning the Circumcision Jesus Christ hath been a Husband in Blood to thee O suffering Saint Now art thou also indeed a Sister and a Spouse to him in Blood This Life is the Season of suffering Christ suffered here Can you not suffer with Christ one hour the short Season of this fleeting Life Think how glorious in the Eyes of all the Holy Angels and of the Blessed Saints of Christ and the Father you shall come into Heaven How dear to the Bosom and Embraces
of them all when you come most covered with Dust and Blood when you come immediately out of the greatest sufferings when you come so much the lovelier by how much the liker you are to Christ when Christ and the Father have been so much the more glorified in you when they in their Glories have so much the more clearly eminently shined forth in your Persons and rested upon them by how much the more extream your sufferings have been When the Father hath thus accomplished his will in you what a Feast of Eternal Pleasures what a Crown of Eternal Glories will he make this will of his to you how will he accomplish your will in himself to the utmost height of all delights blessedness 3. See here a threefold comfort against sufferings and Death 1. He who hath conquered them is your Captain the Lord Jesus We read Heb. 2. That the Captain of our Salvation being to bring many Sons to Glory was made perfect through Sufferings There are four things in that word Perfect 1. There was a perfection of sufferings in all kinds and degrees Nothing of any evil of sufferings in the evil of it was absent or could be added 2. Jesus Christ perfectly endured these sufferings in the sense of them in the continuance under them in pressures and oppressions by them 3. He was a perfect Conqueror over them 4. To be made perfect signifieth an initiation in Sufferings as in Sacred and Divine Mysteries So Christ was at once in his Sufferings the Priest the Altar the Fire the Sacrifice the Temple the God This Jesus thus a perfect and a Divine Conqueror over all Sufferings who holdeth all evil of Sin and Sorrow as Captives in Chains of Eternal Goodness pure Love Light and Joy He leads you upon Sufferings he goes before you into them he turns them all into Holy and Heavenly Mysteries of Divine Life and Love and makes you in the midst of them as Priests like Aaron in his Priestly Robes and Ornaments and Anointings in the Temple of the Eternal Spirit 2. You O Saints have nothing to do in your greatest Sufferings that you may be Conquerors over them but to abide in the Lord Jesus He himself in his dying discourses thus comforts his Disciples in the Gospel of St. John In the World you shall have trouble but in me you shall have peace be of good chear I have overcome the World Stand still be stedfast and unmoved in the Lord Jesus so shall you never have any other sight of your Enemies or Troubles but such as the Children of Israel had on this side of the Red Sea when they came forth with their Timbrels and Dances You shall see them drown'd in the Sea of your Saviours Blood in a Sea of Glory in his Victory never to appear more in any melancholy shape When thine Enemies encompass thee on every side like mighty Floods with greatest force and fury lie down upon thy glorified Saviours Bosom as the Bed of Love have his high praises in thy mouth sing aloud of his Love his Loveliness his Victory in his Death his Resurrection and return in the Spirit So shalt thou see all the powers of Darkness Death and Hell under thy Feet bound in Golden Chains of Love Immortality and Glory 3. Look forth now with a Spiritual Eye and see that Sufferings and Death are a name only and empty shadows without any substance The things themselves are for ever destroyed by the Death of Christ and buryed in his Grave never to rise more A good Woman a Martyr being reproved for going with joy to the Fire when Christ was sad at the approach of Death answered My Saviour was sad that I might be joyful Sufferings and Death are now to Saints like Snakes out of whom the Lord Jesus hath taken the Sting that we may take them into our Bosoms and make them our soft and shining Play-fellows They are become now in the Blood and Spirit of Christ like Vipers in Wine which have lost their Poyson and are high Cordials like Bees they have shot their stings into the Lord Jesus and lost them there They have Hony now without any sting for thee to suck forth and feed upon 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 I shall open this by four Scriptures 1. Scrip. Heb. 10. 19 20. The Lord Jesus is said to have conâ—â—erated a new and living way for us to enter into the holiest through the Vail that is his Flesh Math. 27. 50 51. You shall see that as Jesus Christ yielded up the Ghost immediately the Vail of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom The Temple was a Figure of the Person of Christ as the Vail was of this Flesh. How particularly and emphatically is it expressed that the Vail was rent from the top to the bottom to its utmost extent in the Person of Christ The Flesh was as a Vail lying upon the Divine Beauties upon the Eternal Person and the Heavenly Image in the Soul Body of Christ. The Flesh of Christ was a dividing Vail separating between the Lord Jesus the naked Beauties the naked Bosom of his Father keeping his Soul and Body his blessed Person and Divine Nature as they subsisted in his Soul and Body out of the holiest out of the pure and open Glories of the God-Head As the Lord Jesus dies in that same moment this Vail is rent from the top to the bottom from the the highest part of his Soul and Spirit to the lowest part and appearance in the Body Now the Holiest the Heavenly Image the pure and naked Glories of the Eternal Person of the God-Head were opened and discovered thorow his whole Soul and Body His Soul and Body both entered into the Holiest into this Heavenly Image into these pure Glories in the unity of the Eternal Spirit 2. Scrip. John 19. 30. When the Lord Jesus was now breathing his last he formed his last breath into these words it is finished As he spake those words he bowed his Head and gave up the Ghost What was that which was finished with the life of Christ Not the work of our redemption Many great and principal parts of that remained still behind the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus his Ascension his Intercession his return in the Spirit at the pouring forth of that his last Appearance his Judgment and Kingdom What then was that which was finished with the finishing of the life of Christ The days of his abode in the Flesh without the Vail his Humiliation his Sufferings the State of Nature the Curse the Wrath of the Father were now finished the Spirit and Image of this world the hour and power of Darkness the bloody Fight with the Prince of Darkness the Prince of this World were now
with the King himself which the Lord Jesus by dying in himself in thee hath everlastingly destroyed in his own Person in his own Death and in thine by the vertue of his own As an Inchantment so is this whole Frame and Form of things dissolved so doth it vanish at the going forth of thy last breath If thou seek now for the region of Shadows and the Land of Darkness thou findest it no more for ever as he that would seek for the Night the Nightly Shades and Forms of things when the Sun is once risen Let thy Soul and Body both then rejoice together and rest in this assurance that in their departure out of this Life in the passage of Death they shall meet with nothing of loss nothing uncouth nothing unpleasant nothing of Darkness of Division of Death of the Devil but the most beautiful and blessed Face the most dear and delightful Embraces of the Lord Jesus as a Glorious Lover as a Heavenly Bridegroom immediately presenting himself immediately receiving them In the same moment do all things here disappear and all things appear again as they are reconciled into a most ravishing Harmony of Divine Beauty and Love As they are gathered up into their Head into their first Glory their Eternal Unity in the Glorified Person of Christ. 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 and Eternal Principle and so into a State of pure Eternity unmixt Joy and Glory I shall endeavour to explain and confirm this Proposition by the fuller opening of a Scripture which I have often touched Psalm 16. 9 10. 11. Thus we read Therefore my heart is glad my Glory rejoiceth my Flesh also shall rest in hope For thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption Thou wilt show me the path of Life in thy presence is the fulness of Joy at thy Right Hand are Pleasures for evermore This is a Prophesy of Christ in his Death David as a Prophet speaketh concerning Christ and in the Person of Christ. So St. Peter interpreteth and applieth this Scripture Acts 2. 25. This then is the Triumph of Christ in Death over Death which Triumph consisteth of four Parts 1. The Subject 2. The Triumph 3. The Ground 4. The manner of the Triumph 1. The Subject of Christs Triumph This is threefold 1. The Soul 2. The Glory 3. The Flesh of the Lord Jesus 1. The Soul This seemeth to be that unseen and principal part of the Natural Man which in our common language is opposed to the Body as the Visible and inferiour part 2. The Glory hath a twofold acception Davids Harp and his Tongue were his Glory upon two accounts both as he was a sweet Singer a most skilful Musitian and also as he was the sweet Singer of Israel as his Harp and Tongue recorded the Praises of God and made all things round about him to resound the perfections and loves of the Lord Jesus Thus the Tongue of Christ was his Glory as he is the sweet Preacher in Jerusasalem the Heavenly Interpreter one of a thousand who sheweth to Man his Righteousness and his rest But again this Glory in David was the Spiritual Man the birth of the Spirit the Seed of God the Life of Christ Christ in David This Glory in Christ was the Spiritual Man the Heavenly Image the Divine Nature the God-Head For so Heb. 1. 1. Jesus Christ is said to be the brightness of the Glory of God as he is the express Image of his Person and Substance 3. The Flesh of Christ is his Body as it is distinguished from the Soul and is covered with a Vail of Flesh under which Vail it contains within itself those other two the Soul and the Glory This is the threefold Subject of the Triumph the Natural Body the Natural Soul the Eternal Spirit as it inhabiteth in these 2. The Triumph itself is exprest in those four words Gladness Joy Rest and Hope Gladness is the same with Joy The State of Blessedness in Heaven and Eternity is expressed by Joy The Lord Jesus saith to the Good and Faithful Servant Enter thou into thy Masters Joy St. Peter calls the Blessedness which we have here in believing and loving the Lord Jesus which is Heaven upon Earth a Joy Glorious and unspeakable As our Lord Jesus dyed the Humane Soul of Christ before imprisoned in a Fleshly Body went forth to be comprehended and swallowed up in that Joy which it could not take in nor comprehend because it was boundless and infinite His Divine Nature which in this Humane Soul together with it had been vailed by an Earthly Body now breaks forth and shines out into the freedom and full liberty of its own unconfined delights and unvailed Glories My Soul saith Christ is glad and my Glory rejoiceth The Triumph of Christ in his Body and his Flesh is set forth by Rest and Hope which two words import Life Sense a Sweetness and fulness of Life and Sense with Immortality The Sabbath in the beginning of the Creation as it figureth the perfection of a Sanctified and blessed State in Christ and in Heaven is expressed by Rest the name Sabbath signifieth Rest. The Land of Canaan as it was a Land of Rivers and Springs and floods of Water as it was a Land flowing with Milk and Hony and so a Type of that good Land that flourishing Land of the Spirit and of Eternity where the Fountains and full floods are of all Divine Goodness and Truth is expressed by Rest. Joshua who gave the Land of Canaan to the Jews is said to give them Rest. That perfect Cessation from all trouble that perfect Consummation of our Happiness in the quieting of all our desires by the full accomplishment of them that terminating of all our motions to good in their most wished for end the chief good which the Lord Jesus which the Gospel which Faith bringeth us to in an immediate entire eternal Union with God all this the Holy Ghost expresseth by Rest. Come to me and I will give you Rest saith the Lord Jesus He that believeth entereth into Rest saith the Epistle to the Hebrews Thus the Body and Flesh of Christ rest in Death These are the words as he dies in his Song of Death My Flesh also doth rest in hope The Hebrew word for Hope signifieth two things Confidence and Hope Confidence implies a double certainty 1. A certainty in the object which is the good in prospect or in possession hoped for or already enjoyed 2. The certainty of the Subject which is a sweet a deep a clear Sense and Seal upon the Soul of the certainty of the object of the certainty of that Good which it hath in fruition or expectation This twofold Certainty maketh that confidence or assurance which compleateth or crowneth the Souls
Rest. In this confidence doth the Flesh of the Lord Jesus rest in Death It hath no more for ever any Conflicts or Allarms It is overspread with a sweet and clear Heaven It breaths in a gentle and delicious air where there is no storm no rain nor cloud It is in a State of immutable joys where there is no Death no Shadow of Death no trouble no fear no shadow of fear or any such thing All things sing an eternal requiem and rest to it As the Flesh of the Lord Jesus resteth in Confidence so it resteth also in Hope Hope is good in prospect or in progress At our first conversion the Eternal day breaketh upon us While we live on Earth in a State of Grace we have sweet and clear streaks of the Light of Life appearing thorow our Spirits which still grow clearer and brighter unto a perfect day But all this while there are dark and black shades of the Night Sins and Sufferings every where mingled with the pure Light of this blessed Day At Death it is perfect Day The shadows of the Night are perfectly drunk up into the rising Light that now they appear no more in dark Forms but are seen only as by a lovely temperature with the Light they make beautiful and pleasant colours of Saffron and of Roses In the Resurrection the body of the Sun the Eternal Sun the Lord Jesus in the Glory of his God-Head ariseth upon Soul and Body both and is nakedly seen nakedly enjoyed without the Vail of any dark and nightly shade or any Floury Spicy or morning shade From the Resurrection to the utmost point of the ascention this Divine Sun is rising higher and higher in Glory upon us till he comes to that Noon-sted of Eternity and of the God-Head where there is no more any ascent or descent where the Unity is entire where god is one and that one God is all in all In the Confidence and full assurance of this Hope doth the Flesh of our dying Saviour and of every dying Saint rest Object But you may say we have formerly seemed to affirm according to the Language of the Scripture that the days of Christ on Earth before his Death were alone the days of his Flesh that the Flesh of Christ was a Vail upon his Body which was rent in Death that it was not the substance of his Body nor its true proper and natural Form but a darkning and dividing Form in which the Body of Christ appeared and with which it was cloathed in the State of fallen Nature in the State of his Humiliation in his Earthly State This State ended this Form was put off in Death How then had the Flesh of Christ a part in his Triumph How did the Flesh of Christ rest in Hope Ans. In a Garden of Flowers by night the Flowers are seen in dusky and dark Forms while the shades of the night lie upon them as Vails upon their Beauties When the bright day riseth upon this Garden the Flowers appear in their naked and shining Beauties in their proper and lovely Figures their dark appearances together with their darkning vails the shades of the night are drunk up and transformed into the brightness of the Rosy morning The Body of the Lord Jesus and of all his holy Ones are the immortal Flowers Flowers of the Heavenly Paradise Their Fleshly Form is the shadow of the night upon them their dim and dusky appearance thorow this Shadow Death is the lovely and rosy Morning of the Eternal Day rising upon them The Spirit of Glory and of God is the brightness of this Day The Flesh is now changed into Spirit the dusky appearance thorow the Vail of Flesh into a Spiritual and Heavenly brightness In this brightness these bodies of which we spake shine forth in their naked native shapes and Beauties from all parts they shed a Divine Lustre they breath a pure sweetness of Divine Joys like the Flowers of the Spring in a fair morning Thus the Flesh of Christ resteth in Death 3. The ground of this Triumph is the inseparable union between the God-Head and the whole Humanity of Christ living or dying These are the words of the Lord Jesus by his Spirit in the mouth of David Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell Expositors agree that the word Hell signifieth not a place of torments according to the common acception but the State of Soul and Body in Death The Greek word by which it is rendered in the New Testament is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which by its notation signifieth the State of things Invisible or the Invisible State of things It is also well known that the Soul in the language of the Old Testament is not used to express only one part of a Man but the whole Person It is a Maxim in Divinity laid down by all learned and holy Men that when the Natural Union between the Soul and Body of our Lord Jesus ceased in Death the Supernatural and Hypostatical or Personal Union between the Divine or Humane Nature in both parts of it remained inviolable and entire Thus it is frequently said that although the Soul of Christ was separated from his Body in the Grave yet the God-Head was never separated from either O sweet and sure truth A Spring of Holy Heavenly and Immortal Joys in Life and in Death This Truth rightly understood is a blessed Light which discovereth to us a Divinity in our Life here Immortality in Death and Heaven in the Grave This Divine Truth is the rich ground of our dear Saviours Glorious Triumph over Death in Death There was a twofold band of Union between the Soul and Body of Christ while he lived in Flesh one Natural the other Supernatural 1. The Natural Union was that composition of soul and Body by which he became a Natural Man and had the true Forms Substance and Essence of a Man sprung from the first Adam This band of union was broken in Death by which means the Natural Man now was no more for ever according to its Natural State and Principle but vanished like a shadow breaking up into the Light of a Spiritual Glory 2. The Supernatural Union is that of the second Person in the Trinity which is the Eternal God who at the Incarnation of Christ made himself Flesh that is a compleat Man himself subsisting as the single and undivided Person in this Man in both parts of this Man in Soul and in Body giving in like manner a personal subsistence to them in himself that the Divinity and the Humanity in its Soul and in its Body both were all one simple individual indivisible Person This is that which Divines call the Hypostatical or Personal Union in Christ which remained firm and altogether unimpaired in Death itself See now the beautiful and delightful consequences of this Union The Soul and Body of Christ continued immediately intimately sweetly triumphantly united upon the Cross in the Grave were both one Immortal
his spouse this Soul or this Body which he hath spoused as chast Virgins to himself to see Corruption No no my Bride-groom with all his Lights of Glory and the Father of lights in him will accompany this Darling-Soul and Darling-Body his pair of Doves which are to him as his two eyes through Death and the Grave There will he filling all things round about me with his shining Beauties make me to see the Path of Life Immortality all composed of innumerable Angels of Glory or the innumerable Glories of the Godhead as the Milky way in Heaven is said to be composed with innumerable Stars thick set Thorow all the shades of Death shall I behold all pleasantnesses in his Face shining forth upon me with a fresh Glory as a new Sun turning those Shades into a flowry and perfumed Arbour in the Heavenly Paradise I shall be continually at his right hand where pleasures are for evermore without mixture interruption or end Thus is his right hand which is the heighth and Fountain of Life and Pleasures the beginning of my Life my strength and guide in my way my end in Death We have finished the answers to the objection against the Immortality and Glory of the Body of a Saint together with the Soul in Death which was taken from the Body itself and strengthened by the particular consideration of the Body of Christ in Death and in the Grave We have finished the distinction between the two Bodâ—es the Body of Death in a Saint and the proper Body of a Saint which is an insâ—parable Member in the Spiritual and Heavenly Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Ghost as the Soul is We come now to the last objection taken from the resurrection of the Body at the last day which seems to be without any sense if our Bodies become Glorious and Immortal at our Death This Objection is answered by the distinction of three eminent steps or degrees in the resurrection from the Dead I shall take my ground upon which I shall build this answer and distinction from St. John Chap. 11. v. 25. these are the words of our Lord Jesus in that place I am the Resurrection and the Life He that lives and believes in me shall never die He that beliâ—ves in me though he were dead yet shall he live The Lord Jesus is here comforting Martha mourning over her dead Brother He propounds to her the comfort and Joy of his Resurrection Thy Brother saith he shall rise again That which would have been a present and powerful Joy looked upon with a Spiritual eye in a Light of Glory becomes to Martha a faint and far distant Joy while she looks upon the Resurrection a great way off at the end of the World So she answereth the Lord Jesus Yea Lord I know that my Brother shall rise again at the last Day The Lord Jesus scattereth this Cloud of Flesh by shining out upon Martha in the Brightness and Glory of his Heavenly and Divine Person as that Invisible and Eternal Sun which is at once the Fountain and Treasury of all Lights Lives and Forms of things in a state of Perfection and unchangeableness The Lord as he shineth out upon her annointeth the eyes of her mind with his Spirit and the Light of his appearance to see him as he is in the fulness of Glory as the fulness of the Glory of God and of all things dwelleth in him as he is the same and all things in him are the same yesterday to day and for ever I saith he am the Resurreâ—tion and the Life The latter of these is the cause and demonstration of the former It will not seem strange to him who seeth the Lord Jesus to be the Life of all things all things in their most exact distinction to be living perfectly and Eteâ—nally in him in the vast and unbounded Circle of the Unity of his Person and Spirit as in a secret Paradise a Field of Light and bliss above the Heavens and yet invisibly present every where that he should at his Pleasure bring forth things which have disappeared here by Death into new appearances as Resurrections from the Dead and present them again to our eye in the same Forme in which they before conversed with them not as Pâ—antasms or as empty Apparitions but real and Substantial Thus to Martha inlightned by this Spiritual Vision of Christ it was easie to understand that Jesus Christ could give her Brother Lazarus again out of his Grave living into her Arms even at that present time Having thus cleared my ground for my ensuing discourse by the opening of the words I procced to my distinction of a threefold eminent degree in the Resurrection from the Dâ—ad 1. The first eminent step or degree in the Resurrection from the dead is Regeneration which signifieth a new birth a second birth to be born again of God after the Death of that Life which we receive from him by our first Generation as Sons of God by the Creation 2. The Second eminent step or degree in the Resurrection from the Dead is the Natural Death 3. The last eminent step and degree is the Resurrection of the Dead at the last day 1. I shall begin with the first of these that the difference between these thâ—â—e Resurrections may more clearly appear I shall lay it down in the form of a Doctrine Doct. Regeneration is a Resurrection from the Dead St Paul clearly so expresseth it Eph. 5. v. 14. wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the Dead and Christ shall give thee Light Behold three things here 1. A Sleep 2. The Awakening from this Sleep 3. The cause of Awakening 1. Here is a sleep Thou that sleepest Every man in his Natural state is a divine Spirit an Immortal Soul an Image of God a Son of God in a deep Sleep The Natural Sleep is defined to be a perfect ligation or binding up of all the senses outward or inward But this is an unnatural Sleep into which we are cast by the Enchantments and Power of the Devil It is the Sleep of Sin O man all thy senses and faculties outward and inward which were true pure and divine in the Similitude of God whilst they were awake and at liberty were continually feasted with divine Objects they possessed and enjoyed a Paradise in themselves But how are they now fallen asleep how are they bound up Thou now no more seest hearest tastest feelest understandest enjoyest any sweet beam of truth any thing of the Harmonious Musick of the delicate Relish of the soft Embraces of the immutable all-satisfying Reality and Substance of pure Love pure Light pure Beauty pure Joy pure Goodness Every thing pleasant every thing Real every thing Divine is to thee as if it were not at all Yet is not thy sleep quiet All this which thou seemest to thy self to hear to see to understand to converse with by any of thy senses or faculties
Glorious Person by the Heavenly and Personal Union in and with the Eternal Word Soul and Body were separated in respect to their Natural Union and Composition All the Relations and Delights of both all the precious Treasures all the clear Images and Lights of Life with the sweet life itself vanished and fled away so far as they were founded upon the Natural Union the band being broken which tyed them all together in one at the dissolution of this Union But all these still dwelt together undivided still possessed and enjoyed one another after the most intimate manner without allay or interruption in the Unexpressible and Glorious Unity of the Eternal Word the Second Person in the Trinity This Unity was a Divine Band an undivided Center a living Spring an unfathomable depth of Loves and Glories where they lay perpetually enfolded in the warm embraces each of other covered with all the sweetest Lights and Beauties even upon the bitter Cross and in the cold Grave never to be divorced from each other Separation itself was here only a various and delightful form of embracing in the Unity of this Eternal Person 4. In the fourth and last place follows the manner of the Triumph This hath three parts 1. The Triumph over Corruption exprest in these words Thou shalt not suffer thy holy One to see Corruption 2. The Triumph of Life Thou wilt shew me the path of Life 3. A Triumph in the Pleasures of Life In thy Presence is fulness of Joy at thy Right Hand Pleasures for evermore 1. The first part in the manner of the Triumph is the Triumph over Corruption Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption The Triumphant Person here is the holy one of God the holy Son of God the pure Seed Birth and Image of God Jesus Christ in his Divine and Humane Nature as he is in both the Holy One of God the Holy Birth and Son of God Jesus Christ in himself Jesus Christ in David David in Jesus Christ Jesus Christ in the Holy Soul and Holy Body of every Member of Christ as they are the Spiritual Births and Spiritual Temples of the Holy Spirit This is the Person which Triumphs in Death That which he Triumphs over is Corruption There is a complication of four Evils in Corruption 1. Division or Dissolution which is the chief and the Root of the other Evils 2. Darkness increasing 3. Deformity overspreading 4. Decay which is a tendency to a destruction of Being or to a contrariety in Being to all the good of Being Over all these Evils of Corruption Jesus Christ Triumpheth as he dyeth 1. Jesus Christ Triumpheth over Division or Dissolution in Death The Eternal Unity of his Divine Person was at once as a Root and a Band to both his Natures to both parts of his Humane Nature to all the Powers and parts of his Soul and Body to the several Elements in his Body to all Perfections of Glory Grace and Nature in all Powers and Parts of the Humane Soul and Body All were as an Immortal Nosegay or a Mysterious Knot of Divine Flowers ever inseparably united in this Band ever unfadingly flourishing in this Root of the Hypostatical Union or the Divine Unity of the Eternal Person which was indissoluble in Death itself Yea those Separations which are Natural and necessary in Death were themselves Flowers of the Heavenly and Earthly Paradise bound up with this Heavenly Band in this ever-fair ever-fragrant Nosegay 2. Jesus Christ dying Triumpheth over the gloomy horrours of the increasing darkness which ariseth from the hateful Womb of Darkness in the dreaded vaults of Death The Divine Nature which is inseparable from the Humane Nature the Personal Unity which is really and substantially one with the Divine Nature which gives a subsistence in itself to the Humane Nature and makes it in its Personal subsistence one with the Divine this is a brightness of Glory shining in the Grave this is a Golden Candlestick in which all the seven Lamps of God burn continually by day and by night before the Throne of God and make the vaults of Death themselves a Temple of Gold and Christal filled with the sweet Beams of the Heavenly Eternal Sun All things even Death and the darkness of Death are as precious Stones set together in the rich Jewel of this Person or Hypostatical Union where no one Stone contracts the least degree of dimness but all in the midnight of Death itself ever sparkle with the sweetest and clearest water of Eternal Life 3. The deformity of Death as it springs up out of the Corruption in Death is the subject of our dying and dead Saviours Triumph The Heavenly Image of the God-Head which is the supream Beauty the Arche-type and first Pattern of all Beauties upon the Mount of Eternity is the Person of Christ in which the Divine and Humane Nature with all its changes of Life and Death stand and subsist together Can any thing be deformed in Beauty itself Can any thing be Unlovely where the highest and purest Loveliness shines thorow all and over all What must the Harmony what must the amiableness and agreeableness be how exact and ravishing as in Heaven itself there where the Supream Unity the most Sacred Unity of one of the most blessed Persons in the All-glorious Trinity diffuseth itself thorow all the variety of things Divine and Humane of Soul and of Body binding up all by itself immediately into the most perfect and Divine Order and gathering up all into one most perfect and Divine Person in itself How High and Glorious is the Triumph of Divine Beauty over the deformity of Death when thus the Eternal Beauty itself dies dressing itself up in the Forms of Death and giving to Death it s own most lovely Face which enflames the highest Angels and God himself with Eternal and Infinite Loves In the place of Deformity what potent what attractive charms of Loveliness hath this Death to ravish Souls into the bosom of it which are thus to die by a Fellowship with the Lord Jesus as he dies 4 The last Evil in the Corruption of Death is the decay which is a Tendency to a Nothingness a Privation the destruction of the being of things or to a contrariety to all good in Being This is that dark Cave that bottomless Pit out of which like the smoak of Hell like gastly black and flaming apparitions from Hell the deepest and darkest Melancholy the most dismal Horrours and the most horrid Imaginations from the sense and fear of Death issue forth and cover the face of the Soul as pitchy and stormy Clouds cover the Face of Heaven How does the dying Soul dread to be cast forth into the uttermost Darkness to be dispossest of itself together with all thigns To be endlessly sinking in an abyss or bottomless deep of a vast emptiness and a cheerless formless shade to be no more or to be in the midst of all the wounds and torments that