a closer texture and Consistence than before and some of them were hardned and coagulated into Earth Stones c. by the strong astringency of his sharp austere Fire as you see that of Water which is an Air or rather a thin Vapor condensed is made an Ice and an Oil the Ice for want of a heat able to melt or thaw it is hardned into Chrystal the Oil by due concoction becomes a Salt and an Earth and this Earth by a strong heat is hardned into a Brick and that thus out of the Clouds by the Fire that breaks out of them and compacts the thin and most earthy parts of them into a hard Lump or Stone Thunderbolts are produced By which means Lucifer's Sphere which is this visible World for he is still Prince of it John 12.31 and with it all the Concretes became palpable or tangible Thus this world was created a third Principle produced thus the Principle of Fire came to be creaturely and thus Evil begun and subsists now in the world And ex invisibili this world was thus made visible that is after the Light was made to shine in it again For until it pleased God to reveal his Light therein Gal. 1.16 there was nothing but a sharp dark grim austere Face over and through the whole Deep or Sphere Vmbra horrenda mortis and an inflamed Devil burning very terribly and furiously storming and casting his firy darts or flames into all its parts and as far as God himself But then God whose Nature Will Power and Act is but one and the same thing at all times resisting by his Nature which is the Summum Bonum the opposite Will Nature and Power of Lucifer made the Light which is the end of Nature to overcome to thaw this stiff frozen World and to spring a second time even through this Death and Hell into a new Paradise and glorify'd it again by casting out the Prince of this world John 12. 28 31. into his darkness or dark Fire for ever 2 Pet. 2 4. because he was the Author of such Fire in Nature and had changed the Pulchrum and the Bonum of the Light the good and the delightsom into darkness and evil and by destroying the Light had killed God in himself For God is the Light that is the good and the bliss of Life who by living in Angels and Men makes them live happy and therefore when they kill him as do all those that put out their Light that is fall again when they have been enlightned Hebr. 6.6 he never more lives in them and they live no more but die laying in a continual horror darkness and anguish Thus as Lucifer had been by re-kindling his Fire the Originator or the occasional cause of this 3d Principle the World so God by opening again the Principle of Light therein created and perfected the same into a Principle which was mixt as it is now that is did partake of both Principles of good and evil whereof the Tree of Knowledge in the midst of the Garden was a Sacrament or Sign what no other Tree that grew in the same Garden could be because they sprung like Adam from the Principle of the Light which made the Garden to be Eden or a Paradise It would not be amiss to shew here 1 that Adam was created in that Principle and made a second Angel in the stead of Lucifer 2 That he fell from it by lusting and attracting filling darkning enflaming of himself like Lucifer till his own Light grew so weak and saint that he fell asleep 3 That it was this mixt World which he thus lusted after imagining into and looking back into that out of which he was taken Gen. 2.7 like Lot's Wife into Sodom instead of looking Eastward or forwards towards the light all the time he was tempted upon which he fell asleep 4 That upon the biting and swallowing of the Apple he was seized upon invaded and infected by the Four Elements which stampt per contactum their mark and badge upon him as doth the longing Mother upon the Fruit in her womb cloathing him over with this rough hairy beastly or elementary Body what they could not have done else having no power at all over him before eating whereby he became of Isoh the Divine Man in the Light Adam the dark cloudy Man from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mist or a Cloud not from Adamah the Earth as our Wisemen make it for Adamah itself is derived from Adam as being his Adamah or the thing Adam dwelt on And which elementary Body is cut off from him never to return or rise again as the Divines teach because the Elements themselves from whence it proceeds shall pass away for ever 2 Pet. 3.10 and as it is what kills him Rom. 7.24 and makes him a fallen Man a Man of Sorrows and Grief wretched dark and cloudy he must be delivered from it and from its bondage into the glorious Liberty of God's Children to be happy or saved 1 Cor. 6.13 5 That in the cool of the day that it after the fierceness of his burning was over Gen. 3.8 when he was come to the state or the new birth of water he heard God speak and promise to him and to his Children to the end God's Will might stand and prevail against the Gates of Hell and the Devil's Will the Light Christ the third Angel. Who should bring again to him Lise and Immortality 2 Tim. 1.10 and restore this corrupted hard bound World to its former liberty the clear brightness it enjoyed before the Fall or kindling of Lucifer What he might have some hopes of whereas Lucifer hath none because thô he had killed God in him like Lucifer that is put out his own Light yet he was not the Author of the Evil in Nature had not infected the world and brought corruption in it but on the contrary the world had insected him when he tasted of the Apple and received into him the Sacrament of the Tree or Fruit of Good and Evil as being a mixture of both these and out of which his Body was extracted Gen. 2.7 whereby he had that in him which drew him and made him apt to lust and long after it But these things are too prolix and therefore to make at once an end of this Digression and reassume the Discourse of our Application I say thus But if what I did speak of be true how many are mistaken who doubtless think otherwise And is it not the Duty of them that are in power both to believe it themselves and to use the means proper to make others believe it and to prepare themselves and become capable and fit for the Birth of the Spirit To which end Is not reading the Bible to be promoted and therefore learning to read to be by Law enjoined And so should not an Act be made to oblige all People both Men Women and Children in the Land to learn to read and to read the Bible
34-29 1 of which you have a very fresh Instance in the late King. To return to the manner of the second Coming of Christ by the Holy Ghost observe that as the lightning comes at first out of the East and then shines even unto the West that is enlightneth the Hemisphere all over so his Coming which is not with any observation Luke 17.20 appears first like the Day-spring chap. 1.78 or the dawning of the day or is like the morning Star arising in our hearts 2 Pet. 1.19 for there all our thoughts or first glimpses of Light rise then encreasing more and more to the perfect light or day Prov. 4.18 it comes to be like the Sun at Noon and at the Solstice in reference to both which distinct states Christ is called the Morning Star by St. John Rev. 22.16 20. and the Sun of Righteousness by the Prophet Malachy 4.2 because he both dissipates the Morning Clouds by his light and strengthneth by the power of it a Believer so that he brings him to ripeness or to his full perfection the flash at his appearance shining nothing near so bright and comfortable as the Sun and as itself would do if it lasted for ever or endured a great while without vanishing again For after the same manner Christ the Word or the Wisdom and Light and Power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 within us in our hearts Rom. 10 8. springing out of the centre out of a man 's own darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 first appears to the sad mind like glimmering sparks of light which are a great refreshing to the Soul light or knowledge bringing still along with it great joy as I have said Then encreasing and sending its sweet beams by little and little towards the Circumserence till it shines through the whole Sphere it enligthneth all over and at the same time comforts and strengthneth sick sainting Man in such sort that he may rise from the shadow of death wherein he lay as benumm'd and walk and run and not faint and mount up with wings as Eagles Isa 40.31 Joel 2.7 and going from strength to strength Psal 84.7 both take God's Kingdom by force and rise to the very top or crown or zenith thereof which is God's holy mountain or the highest state of bliss and of glory and of light which Mankind is capable of Dan 12.3 Mat. 13 43 -19.28 Rev. 3.21 continuing all the while springing shining enlightning and refreshing the firy dark Soul to eternal life with the water of that Well that is Wisdom and Knowledge flowing out of a Man's self whereof Christ spake in St. John 4 14-7.38 As an ever flowing spring of living water streaming through a hot and desart place would revive the weary Traveller dying for Thirst so this new Spring of Wisdom revives the dry sainting Soul of Samson and Ishmael that is of Christ's stout Champions Gen. 21.20 the Church Militant on Earth as soon as they begin to thirst after Righteousness Mat. 5.6 as it was typified by the water gushing out of the Asses dry Jaw-bone which Samson after a great Victory being ready to die met with in his thirst Judg. 15.18 19. and by the Wells of water which Israel found at last in the dry and desart Land Exod. 15.27 But before he I mean the said sick Man comes to this he must dye the second death according to God's threatning Gen. 2.17 which because God's Word is true shall not pass away from him before it be fulfilled Mat. 24.35 and this is not so easie a matter for him to do as our learned Divines who pass it over sicco pede teach in their Sermons For to speak of this dying which is the other thing needful for the obtaining the said birth of the Spirit it is really a dying and dying you will grant is a hard thing to Mankind Neither is it only such dying as is that of this body of the flesh which Men easily go through But such as is proper and peculiar to the Soul which is so intolerable that none but the Son of Man or at least the Soul of Man enabled by the virtue and strength of the Son of Man can sustain or bear with it Prov. 18.14 For no man he saith himself John. 3.13 doth ascend up to Heaven but he that comes down from thence to give us power and strength and thus by enabling us to die lifts us up thither and there go along with it the terrors of Hell it self Which thing because it seems new and very strange to the world is what I do here take upon me to demonstrate And first to shew what it is This dying is the same death as that Adam died of after he had transgressed which must be some other thing than the death of his Body for he was surely to die the day that he transgressed Gen. 2.17 whereas his Body did live 900 years after And that was a rising or an exasperation of the Fire of his Soul after he tasted the Apple for he had lost long before viz. before he fell asleep the Light of Life which his Soul enjoyed at his Creation to a very intense or high degree of sierceness raging in him till the time he catcht hold of the promise made to him of the Woman's Seed Christ the Light of the world For Life without Light is but a dark and obscure Fire kindled either here or there in some individual place and burning without shining as do all Acids the Frost and those Corrosives called Ignes Potentiales by Chymical Writers whereby the Life just subsists in a very anxious fretful state or condition as being always feeding upon the thing it is in that is upon the Body which it had formed itself till that Body be consum'd or till this hungry Fire be fully satiated And this Fire thus burning was represented to us by the firy Serpent of God's People in the Desart and by a Worm or Serpent which Christ saith doth never die because it is always renascens reproducing or kindling itself anew viz. in the eternal Souls for there it can as well do it always as for once by reason that its Body or Subject doth not decay and when exasperated it is the Death of the Soul or its Hell burning gnawing and making it for ever anxious and full of pain except it reacheth the Light that makes all things comfortable Here consider the grimness of a dark and frosty Night which chills benums and destroys and burns all things on the ground and what state things would lay in if the Light of the Sun were taken out of the world Would not all the living things lay still like Worms in Winter and be frozen up as hard and stiff as Ice in their place Sure the world itself would be nothing but Death all over And thence conceive if you can how sharp severe and bitter are to the despairing Soul whose dark Fire corroding and biting it like sharp Frost or a fretting Humor or some tart
acid Liquor makes it ake and shoot and prick and rave like an angry Sore beyond imagination the horrors of that grim Night which the terrible Day of the Lord is said to have Joel 2.3 But when the Light appeareth and breaks out in this darkness and runs through and over spreads this dark yet burning Fire How pleasant and comfortable it looks Things grow green again and look as the Prophets say like the Garden of the Lord Before them the Land is like the Garden of Eden and behind a Flame burneth and makes all as it were a desolate Wilderness where the Heat and the Cold kills burneth and parcheth all up For the Light bringing with it the clear and lovely Sunshine doth not only mitigate and allay this fierce Ardor but turns the Ardor of Heat and the great sharpness of Cold into a Refrigery and makes the Soul a pleasant and delightful Paradise Ho ho come forth saith the Lord Zach. 2.6 7. flee from the Land of the North Zion deliver thy self out of such Northerly state and walk in the light of God. Fire exasperated and deprived of all Light is Eternal Death or Hell or the wrath of God or god burning in the Soul And the same Fire fully satiated tinctured and impregnated with Light is the Eternal Life Rest and Paradise of the Soul and God appeased pleased become pleasant delightful gentle and merciful in us and the love of God itself shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of Christ which he gives to us Rom. 5.5 Note well here what Matthew saith 3.17 that it is in Jesus Christ who is the Light of the world that God the Father who is a Fire is well pleased and that this was said of him after he was baptized at the same time that he was coming out of the water ver 16. Now because Man in this world is not altogether bereft of the Light of Life all Men being enlightned not only with the outward but the inward Light Christ John 1.9 And therefore his Life is not a Fire without some Light he hath some good of his Life and enjoys whil'st he lives here the pleasures this world affords without any sensible torment or anxiety Except the Father who draws always all Men to himself awakes the Worm and stir up and acuate the Fire which was kept within its bound both by the Light of this world and by the Sensualities which the Soul is diverted and which the Worm of the Soul is always lull'd asleep with For then when the Worm awakes and the Fire is moved the Soul begins to feel the gnawing Syndereses that bite rack and torture it then Man is in a sad pickle his Light goes out he despairs he cries Vror Absumor he looks up and behold trouble down and on every side and behold nothing but pain anguish darkness and horror Then his Moon is eclipsed his Sun saith Christ is darkned and the Powers of Heaven or of the Kingdom of God or of Heaven within him are shaken Matth. 24.28 as it hapned to Christ in his Agony when he sweated Blood for it Luke 22.44 and was sorrowful to death and prayed very fervently that this Cup this very death and not the death of his flesh for that 's not worth praying for and it was unavoidable might pass from him if possible Matth. 26.38 39. And then the sorrows of Hell compass him Psal 18.5 and then he bears with Christ the wrath of God seels that great tribulation foretold Matth. 24.21 22. which none was ever ever like to and note well never shall be and which no man in the flesh could ever go thorow with except the days of this same Tribulation were shortned by the God of Jesu-run who comes riding in the clouds of the heaven in his help and in the great might of his excellency on the sky For the eternal God is his refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms to thrust out the enemies that spoil'd him from before him Deut. 33.26 27. How sweet is the Name Jesus to a Soul that would come out of its Gall of bitterness Acts 8.23 In a word he dies the death Gen. 2.17 and bears the wrath of God for all men must be judged Hebr. 9.27 or undergo the trial of 1 Pet. 4.12 and these be the days saith Luke 21.22 of vengeance or of wrath wherein as saith Isaiah 66.16 the Lord shall plead by Fire and by his Sword with all flesh in this or the other world for falling away from him It 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of that God Hebr. 10.31 who is a Fire living and devouring for ever Isa 33.14 Hebr. 12 29. Secondly It is all Men in the world whom God pleads with by Fire and by his Sword for every Man saith Mark 9.49 shall be salted with Fire and Christ baptizeth as well with Fire saith the Baptist Matth. 3.11 as with the holy Spirit those that are to be saved Now the word every one includes all and excepts none therefore they that are saved must all go through this Fire this being the Cherubim who keeps with a flaming Sword the way of the Tree of Life and of Paradise itself so that there is no coming at them but only through it that it through his flaming Sword at least if the Word of God Gen. 3. 23 24. is not a meer History and was not written in vain Matth. 24.25 but for Instruction 2 Tim. 3.16 Besides this Peter speaking of this trial by Fire saith 1 Pet. 4.12 that it is no strange thing happing to the Believers or those he calls Beloved and adds in the 13th verse that they who undergo it partake of Christ's sufferings which is another proof of the necessity of their undergoing it First he saith 't is no strange thing therefore it is an usual and known thing to the Faithful Secondly it did begin at the Apostles and must begin at the House of God ver 17. And Thirdly they partake by undergoing of it of Christ's sufferings and death which is as much as to say that they must undergo it because it is a chief part of the sufferings of Christ and they are bound as appears from Matth. 16.24 and 2 Cor. 4.10 to bear the said sufferings being to take up his Cross and follow him under it step by step through every stage or slation which he made what the several stations or pitchings of Israel Numb 21. were a Type and Figure of and to bear in their body the dying of Jesus Christ which dying extends so far as to the loss of their life Matth. 16.25 so long as they have no hopes to find any other way their life and the life of Christ to the perfection of which they may attain as was said Ephes 4.13 if they do imitate him in this part of his passion For as by his Agony bloody Sweat Sorrow to Death he descended into Hell or bore the wrath of God and by the resignation