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
Salvation and Religion consist in they would give over mumbling of their Beads and casting off their Fryers Hoods Surplices c. embrace and follow the means of Wisdom and Salvation at another rate than you do Now this Light or this Knowledge which Salvation consists in is not a Knowledge in part nor that great heap of Notions fine Fancies Precepts and Rules which many Ingenious Men gather from other Mens Books or bring forth of their own Heads but it is Wisdom it self or the knowledge of all Truth Wisdom being properly an Universal Knowledge or a Light that shews all things Guides a man into all truth John 16.13 and makes all things manifest It is not a bare Nosce te ipsum or the Knowledge of thy self nay of the World that constitutes the Wisdom which makes our Salvation but the true Knowledge of God and of Jesus whom he sends Acts 3.19 20. Because God being in all and through all and beyond all the Heavens Circumference Eph. 4.6 1 Kings 8.27 and all having its being in and out of God himself Acts 17.28 Nature being as it were a Nascitura Dei or God bringing forth a part of himself out of himself God comprehends all Beings Exod. 3.15 And so his Knowledge also includes all other Knowledge not only that of himself and of all the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but much more that of the World since it is but as it were an Epitome of God which besides is felt and seen John. 3.12 Christ adds John 17.3 unto the Knowledge of God that of Jesus Christ as being sent to refresh or comfort and perfect Men Acts 3.19 20. John 14.18 Because Christ being the Light both of God and of the World which like the Sun in the World both enlighteneth and strengtheneth and brings Life to Perfection so tempering allaying and mitigating the force and fierceness of the Fire which is the Father of Life giving Life its beginning or a principle of Motion that it turns the Wrathful Ardor of God the Father for the Father by himself without the Light of the Son is a consuming Fire from whence he calls himself so and an Angry Jealous God viz. in the Creatures only and by no means in himself for God is Quatenus God that is Three Persons in One nothing but Light Love Meekness Joy and the Summum Bonum into a pleasant Being or Refrigeratory thus bringing to Perfection the anxious Firy Soul or the Life of the Soul which the Father had begun it behoves us to know him for such Savior that is for him that enlighteneth comforteth and perfecteth and brings to a pleasant rest the anxious Firy Souls by introducing his Light into their Fire which is the Life and Father thereof Now this Knowledge of the Truth which saves Man 1 Tim. 2.4 saves him saith Christ John 8.32 34. Revel 2.26 by freeing him from his Lusts and the Slavery of Sin. But to be freed he must sight against them and overcome that by his overcoming he might Reign Victorious Revel 3.21 that is an absolute King who hath all at his command that his Kingdom can afford in God who is the fulness of all things in all places soever where such Man is or finds himself when he dies Psal 73.25 so that he hath where he is without changing his old place to come into a new one all Pleasures for evermore It being nonsence to think that the Kingdom of God is in a particular place For this World shall pass away and when this Body dies the World disappeareth or dies also to the Souls understand the Blessed Souls leaving nothing about them but God the infinite Space who therefore as infinite admit neither quantity nor time nor ubiquity I say that Man must fight and overcome to be freed For as I said Wisdom or the Knowledge that makes Free is not a meer passive Theory or bare Notion but altogether active For as one hath defin'd it Wisdom is Lumen mentis if not rather Mens ipsa which Christ restores to the Soul 1 John 520. Clarè praelucens tribus ill is facultatibus quae simul constituunt humanam creaturam Which Three are Intellect us Voluntas Animus That is A Light shining first to the Intellect to see or perceive and understand in seeing and in hearing Matth. 13.14 every thing perfectly next to the Will directing and inducing him to chuse or determinate it self to desire and appete only what the Intellect shews him to be very good And lastly to the Courage that is to the power force and vertue of the Soul strengthening or enabling it to reduce into Practice and to follow and perform those things the Understanding hath shewed to be very good and which the Will desires appetes and chuseth for such As all things are matured or ripened and perfected by the strength of the Light of the Sun acting in them So Wisdom is compleated and the Soul is perfected by the power and the strength of its Light to act and do what it knows fit to be done A Man's Wisdom is known in the World by his Actions Whence saith St. James I will shew thee my Faith by my Works That is I will shew thee by them my Knowledge of God because Intelligere being ipsum credere as Trisinegistus affirms Faith is an Understanding or an Evidence saith Paul Heb 11.1 of things not seen with the Eye which therefore are evident or as manifest to us as if we saw and felt them So that being convinced of their Truth we believe them and live according to that Conviction doing all that is fit to make us capable of the enjoyment of them Like the Man in the Gospel who understanding full well that there was a great Treasure hidden in a Neighbours Field sold all things parted with all that he had to purchase it Therefore the Just saith St. Paul lives by Faith like Abraham who would not take any thing because he knew that it is God's Blessing makes a Man Rich Gen. 14. 23. and relied on him for it And like Enoch who walked as having God in his sight Chap. 5.24 and the Prophet Elijah who said As the Lord liveth whom I have still present or before whom I stand 1 Kings 17. 1-18 15 and endeavour to please to like a Courtier before him whom he looks for Favour and expects his Fortune from The Faith that saves Man is not an historical Belief of Christ being the Saviour of the World and of his Death Passion and Resurrection but a doing and acting the things that he bids us do viz. to deny our selves and die with him our selves to all the Lusts of the Flesh For he believes not in One who acts point blank contrary to what he saith and prescribes and takes quite another way than that he sheweth and teacheth Not the bare Notion of God but Righteousness and Power makes the Salvation of Man or constitute God's Kingdom Rom. 4.17 1 Cor. 4.20 And Righteousness and
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
Knowledge reform us to God's Image and are that Knowledge of God which makes our Salvation and constitutes true Wisdom To do Judgement and Justice is to know me saith the Lord Jerem. 22. 15 16. And contrary wise to do evil and forbear to do good Works is not to know God Chap. 9.3 1 Sam. 2 12. Having seen that the Kingdom of God or the Salvation of Man consists in Wisdom and also the Quid or what Wisdom or God's Knowledge is It is time to enquire the Per quid or by what means it comes and is obtained The Scriptures say That Wisdom is God's Gift that he send it and that out of his Mouth comes Knowledge and Vnderstanding Prov. 2.6 Job 32.8 James 1.5 17. For indeed no other thing but the Inspiration or Breath of the Almighty the Spiraculum Vitae which he breathed at first into the first Mans Nostrils Gen. 2.7 and is the Lamp of the Lord Prov. 20. 27. can reform Mankind again to God's Image in Knowledge or give him that Breath of Life which his Fall bereft him of The Text saith Nischmah Chajim that is to say Breath of Lives because when Man is born again of the Holy Ghost he lives of a threefold Life to wit Divine Natural and that which he hath common with the Beasts from the Spirit of the World and from the Stars Now what can that Breath of God be but his Holy Spirit who is the good Gift of God Luke 11.13 with Matth. 7 11. which he bestows on Mankind To guide him into all Truth John 16.13 And to teach him all things Chap. 14.26 both Natural and Divine the word all comprehending Omnia Scibilia and chiefly natural things as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is standing more open and exposed to our Senses and Contemplation John. 3.12 Rom. 1.20 than the Divine Mysteries For in this Spirit consists the Kingdom of God it self Chap. 14.7 or Salvation or Wisdom and without him Man remains still in his outward Darkness is still a natural Man Job 11.12 Whose Reason cannot fathom either the things of Nature or of the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 2.14 till by being born again of Water he becomes fit for the Birth of this Spirit which makes him again of that brutish Man he was become an Angelical Creature Luke 20.36 or as Wise as the Angels and Adam before he fell Therefore when Christ the express Image of God Heb. 1.3 came to save or to reform Man again he breathed on his Disciples they that learn of him saying Receive ye the Holy Ghost Joh. 20.22 to shew us that he saves Man by Inspiring into him the same former Breath which God breathed into his Nostrils this Inspiration being the only means of Wisdom which he really gives to him and not as the Priests of Rome do when they Baptize Children or rather when they Ape Christ by repeating of his words and acting this part of his History in the Baptism There is a Spirit in Man which is like a smoaking Flax fit to catch at this new Flame and the Inspiration of the Almighty saith one of Job's Friends Job 32.8 is that which gives Man Light or Understanding And because it is God's Gift therefore all the True Christians are said to be Taught of God John 6.45 and to be made by Christ Priests 1 Pet. 2.5 Revel 1.6 that is able to teach themselves For Teaching under the Law was the Office of the Priests Ezek. 44.23 Mal. 2.7 Whence Christ saith Matth. 23.10 That they have but one Master to wit himself Then when they have received this Spirit and not before they are the Anointed ones that is True Christians indeed for it is the true Unction or the true Oyl of Gladness whereof that which Kings and Priests were of old Anointed with was a Sign or Sacrament because Oyl is all Spirit or the most Spiritual part of all Concretes in the World. And are said to know all things 1 John 2.20 and not to need to be taught any thing of any Man verse 27. So that they need not Travel from home into far Countreys nor to the Academies to confer with the learned for God finds Fault with such means Jer. 23.30 Isa 29.13 and shews we must pass from them Cant. 3.4 to find what the Soul loves best its Summum Bonum Wisdom no Doctors though never so Learned being capable to give it or procure it for any besides themselves Because seeing God gives it they have it not in their gift nay because they seek for Fame and Applause John 5.44 and for Riches and Greatness or Preserment instead of Tribulation which the Disciples of christ should look after in the world chap. 16.33 and thus as saith Jeremy 5.5 break the yoke and burst the bonds they have it not for themselves Isa 29.14 Matth. 11.25 and therefore rather abuse the poor Soul smite it wound it take from it its smoking flax Cant. 5.7 than give it any new light it is but in vain for us to hope for any from them and very absurd to look for our Felicity Wisdom from their Predicables Non est qui sustentet qui conducat eam inter omnes filios quos genuit nutrit There is not one capable to feed guide and hold her up in all the Armies of Sons whereof see Luke 21.20 with Matth. 24.15 which she hath bred and brought forth saith the Prophet Isaiah 51.18 20 when he saw in the spirit the state of the present Church And yet they all say we see John 9.41 so much its desolation is become abominable The word of wisdom alone which is nigh in our hearts Luke 17.21 Rom. 10.8 springing up there like the seed left to it self in the ground and growing we know not how Mark 4.27 and which word is Christ himself Joh. 1.1 1 Cor. 1.24 being that which gives knowledge Blando sno susurro by his still small voice in us 1 Kings 19.12 even the Learned themselves of the world being Judges Deut. 32.31 for their own experience may if they please to think on 't abundantly convince them that they never come to know or to have any knowledge whil'st they go to hear others and till passing from that is ceasing from all School Learning and all things without themselves they retire in themselves and meditate by themselves like Isaac Gen. 24.63 and all wise men thus stirring up or making good use of the smoaking flax or spirit which is in them 2 Tim. 1.6 and of which all Mankind hath enough to profit withal 1 Cor. 12.7 Matth. 25 15. Having fully proved that this Spirit must be had of all those who desire to have or obtain Wisdom that is to say Salvation I must here demonstrate to prevent an Objection that all Men may obtain it if they will but improve their Talent or Trade with it what I must do likewise by the means of the Scriptures The Scripture declares that God gives this spirit of wisdom to all
that ask it of him Luke 11.13 Jam. 1.5 and that will saith St. Peter Acts 2. 38-3 19 20. enter into Repentance And this as much as it was given to the Apostles that is if they overcome and in case they follow Christ in the Regeneration Matth. 19 28-20.23 Revel 3.21 as much as the Apostles and primitive Christians did for it being the blessing promised to Abraham and to Adam before him Acts 1.4 5. Luke 24.49 it belongs to as many of their Children as the Lord shall ever call saith Peter Acts 2.38 39. that is to as many as prepare themselves for it or set themselves in order the Text saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 13.48 with such preparation as I shall speak of and shew in its time and place and this not only adds he chap. 10 47-11.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even as but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is after the manner that we have it our selves he means all the Apostles the Lord going on further in confirmation of this ver 9. putting no such difference viz. of an ordinary and extraordinary gift between us the Apostles and the other Believers as the Lip-Christian's device but giving the Holy Ghost to all indifferently yet in proportion to what degree of true Faith he knows every Believer hath ver 8 that is as much as to Paul and Peter if he believes in Christ as much as they did as it is evident from Cornelius his houshold chap. 10.44 and from the rest of them that believed in the Word chap. 19.6 And because it is the thing promised to Abraham and to his Seed for ever Gen. 13 15-17.7 19. for neither the Jews nor we can name any other thing that doth answer this Promise St Paul calls it the Spirit of Promise Ephes 1.13 Gal. 3.14 And speaks always as taking it for granted that all the Christian Churches of Antioch Acts 13.52 of Ephesus Chap 2.17 18-3 6-5.18 of Galatia 3.2 3 5 14-5 5 16 25. Corinth 1 Cor. 6.11 19. 2 Cor. 11.14 Rome 5.5 8.11 23. Philipi 3.3 Colossus 1 8-3.10 And of Thessabonica 1 Thess 1 5-5.19 2 Thess 2 13. received or might receive after wards the Holy Ghost So that seeing that all Men may obtain the Gift of it and seeing that Salvation cannot be had without it it being as I said the Perquid of Salvation we are bound that is to say as many of us as will or intend to be Saved to endeavour to get it and therefore to enquire after the Quomodo or right way to procure it that is trade with and improve our Talent so well as to gain many more with it Which Enquiry must be made like the rest in the Scriptures I have said already That as Men make Salvation different from God's Knowledge so they make the means of God's Knowledge or of true Wisdom different from this Spirit to wit good Natural Parts and their own Reason and Wit and consequently they know of no other way to it but hard study in the Schools and Consulting their Masters and their Learned Doctors Books As if the Wisdom of God could be had out of those things and could be confined to the narrow pale of their Rules Whereas on the contrary the Scriptures teach that the Man who will be Learned and Wise must become a Fool 1 Cor. 3.18 a Child Matth. 18.3 That is despond like a Child of his Wit Parts and Learning Except you become as simple Chap. 6.22 and humble as little Children who are not self-conceited and have no prejudice against what their Teachers say and Argue not against it but only amongst themselves striving who shall learn it best you shall remain in Darkness or never see God's Kingdom Chap. 18.4 Luke 18.17 Because God keeps from the Wise and Prudent who say we see John 9 41. all true Wisdom and Knowledge and reveals the same only to humble single-eyed Babes Mat. 11. 25. And it will ever be so because Witness Truth himself v. 26. John 14.6 it is God's Will and Pleasure that it should always be so whatever the great Doctors who would be wiser than Christ therefore blow their Nose at him Luke 16.4 in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may say to the contrary The meek will he guide in judgment and the meek and lewly in heart will he teach his ways Psal 25.9 Wherefore blessed are the meek and they that rule their Spirit Prov. 16.32 For they shall inherit the Earth Matth. 5.5 And Wisdom it self v. 3. Take my yoke upon you saith Christ Chap. 11.29 That is learn of me that I am lowly in heart and you shall come to the Rest or Persection of your Souls O how happy is the Man that bears Christ's Yoke from his Youth The Scriptures teach us further That God's Fear is not only the beginning but the end or a Treasure of Wisdom Prov. 1.7 Isa 33.6 That all they that keep God's Word have such an Understanding Psal 111.10 That they know a great deal more than all their Wisest Teachers Psal 119.99 100 104. And that God layeth up Wisdom for them that are Righteous Prov. 2. 7. Meeting saith Isaiah 64.5 them that work Righteousness and that do delight in it For if any Man will do God's Will John 7.17 Keep the words of Christ Chap. 14.23 God will love him and meet him or come by the Holy Ghost and make his abode with him as he met Cornelius Acts 10.44 because he feared God and wrought Righteousness verse 35. So that the Fear of God is the way wherein what gives Wisdom is to be met with and so is the Quomodo of Wisdom or Salvation Now to Fear God is the same as to do the Will of God and to do the Will of God implies a ceasing from Man that is to say a ceasing from doing the will of Man or being born of the Flesh John 1.13 as being against God's Will and at Enmity with him Rom. 8 7. and consequently implies a dying to our selves that we may be born of and live to the Will of God Rom. 6.11 that is implies such Self-denial or abstinence from all the things which our natural Life desires as makes us as dead to it as they that are no more living or have lost their Life Except the corn of Wheat saith Christ John 12.24 25. fall into the ground and die it brings forth no fruit so the way for Man to keep his Life to Eternal Life is to hate it or cease from the Life he hath of this World or as he saith in Matthew 16.25 to lose it that is to die And in John 3.3 He saith further Except a man be born again and that of Water V. 5. he cannot see God's Kingdom that is receive the Spirit which constitutes God's Kingdom Rom. 14.17 Now to be born again is to begin to have a second or a new Life A second Life implies a dying to the former Therefore we must die before we be born again and live to
water being the true preparation or ordering of the Soul which in the 15th Page I promis'd to speak of For as good ground is made fit to receive and to retain the influence of Heaven or the Spirit that comes down from Heaven into the Air and the Water and the Earth the Scriptures call it the Dew and the Blessing from above Gen. 27 40-49.15 by its being frequently moistned with Rain or Water so our Souls become fit for the Blessing promised Joel 2.28 by being throughly water'd for the Water being void and empty as the Earth was Gen. 1.2 the Chymists call this nature of the Water and the Earth an Alkalick quality it is the sitter to draw and to impregnate it self with the Spirit from the Stars and so to nourish the Earth which is well watered with it by introducing this same starry Spirit into it So the Soul by reducing it self to water becomes void and empty like water that is void of all the cares and desires of this world and thereby is the sitter to be impregnated with the Spirit or the Seed of heavenly Bridgroom And wo be to them saith Christ Mat. 24.19 that are not so prepared but are already with Child and give suck about the time that the Bridegroom comes to them because they cannot go in with him to the Marriage Room and because the door is shut and can no more be opened chap. 25.10 that is they are so hardned that they become like Lot's Wise or to continue here the foregoing Metaphor become like some sort of ground which for lack of competent moisture turns to Sand and Dust and bears nothing but Bryers whose end is therefore to be burned as St. Paul affirms Hebr. 6.8 dry and bound like clods of earth or hard for want of moisture a desolate Wilderness Joel 2.3 yielding nothing but Bryers and even Dust and Ashes or such lixiviate Salt as is made out of Ashes or by Incineration that is a Salt Alkali So that Water or the Birth or the Baptism of Water is always like the Baptist the Forerunner of the Lord who comes in the cloudy sad mourning dark ignorant Souls by the light of his Spirit to revive and comfort them Whence according to St. John 5.6 he comes by Water and Blood that is Water and Spirit Blood being but a Compound of Water and of Spirit and so do all the Children of Adam when they are born to shew them that they must be born again of those two things I say that the Lord comes by his comforting Spirit because when that Spirit comes it is the coming of Christ promised John 14.18 28-16 22 or the Lord that comes himself Seeing that Jesus himself is he that 's sent saith Peter Acts 3.19 20-2 38 from the presence of the Lord to refresh or comfort Men or to be as St. John saith 14. 16. their Comforter for ever And therefore Christ is the same as the comforting Spirit and so the coming of this viz. of the Holy Spirit is the same as the second coming or coming again or the manifestation of Christ himself promised John 14.18 21. Concerning which see Math. 16.28 with Mark 9.1 and Luke 9 27-24.49 Gal. 1. 15 16. And I say that he comes into the sad cloudy Souls for as the Lightning saith he Math. 24.27 30. appeareth out of tho East and shineth even unto the West so shall the coming of the Son of Man happen in the clouds of Heaven with power and great glory For these two Verses may be applied to the said coming of Christ by the Holy Ghost Christ having respect therein to the Disciples question proposed in the 3d Verse concerning his coming again in his day Luke 17.24 that is when he should be revealed ver 30. or should come in his Kingdom Matth. 16.28 though perhaps they might not then understand it in this sense but took it as Men now do as thô it were meant only of his third and last coming viz. at the end of the world Which Answer of Christ sets forth the manner of his Coming and the qualification of the thing which he comes to to wit the cloudy or sad and dark or ignorant Souls which are the Clouds of Heaven hiding Heaven within them Luke 17.21 from the sight of other People For as the Lightning breaks out of the dark thick gloomy Clouds shining through them for a time then the Cloud closeth again so doth his Coming appear in the dark sorrowful Souls John 16.20 22. like a flash of Lightning or sudden Coruscation breaking out of their darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 and opening as it were the Cloud that envelops them then shuts it self up again and so continueth to do with many Men for sometime till at last dissipating the darkness altogether it comes to shine through and through the Sphere or the whole Body Mat. 6.22 thus shining from East to West all the Hemisphere over as it hapned unto Christ as his Transfiguration and as it is and will be with all the Saints in Glory who are represented therefore with beams about them because they shine like the Stars and dart out like the Sun their beams on every side Dan. 12.3 Matth. 13.43 For a remembrance of which slashing or coruscation and of the manner of it the Bishops wear a Mitre bearing the shape of a Flame or else of those cloven Tongues which were like as of Fire Acts 2.30 to signifie the opening of the dark clouds in man's head and the cleaving as it were of the sutures in the Scull and man's communication through this cleft part with Heaven which Mitre they assum'd first when this flashing or lightning began to cease in the Church lest the remembrance it self of it should be lost also But that it closeth not up as the Crown of a King doth signified that their flashing did not shine through on all sides that it was but beginning or just breaking out in them and that it continued not with them as with crowned Heads and therefore that they ought not to pretend to and ascribe to themselves so much honour in the Church as Kings may do and consequently much less than they in temporal things especially seeing that the Kingdom of Christ witness himself John 18.36 is not of this world And hence it may be gather'd that the Church was yet modest when they begun to wear it But now the Mitre is got higher than the Crown itself and lords it over Princes and Kings both in Church and State. Which is not well done my Sons my incorrigible Sons would old Eli say to them 1 Sam. 2.24 if he were alive again you ought not thus to break Christ's Yoke and to burst his Bonds if you will be his Disciples or his true Church in England and you may chance to pay for it if you hearken not to the voice of your Father ver 25. For he that being often reproved hardneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy Prov. 3
of his will to that of God Matth. 6.39 42. all the while he was sighting and bearing this chastisement Isa 53.5 that is by his becoming like the Child in Isaiah 9.6 Matth. 18.3 He overcame and became the wonderful mighty Prince and Champion in our Battels so we to imitate him in this part of his Passion and of his Resignation must sight like him and go through the Red Sea of our Blood that bearing through this great Gulph of God's vengeance and wrath we may become with him and with Jacob Gen. 33.28 Kings Princes and mighty Champions in God Rev. 1.6 Without blood our High Priest went not into the second or most Holy Tabernacle Hebr. 9.7 8. Without Bloodshed a Virgin cannot be impregnated so likewise a Virgin Soul that is which is not with Child Matth. 24.19 but is become Christ's chaste Dove Cant. 5.2 or as void of any form Imagery or Idols of the heart as the water cannot be impregnated with the spirit from on high without first spilling her blood or which is all one Gen. 9.4 losing her own life which is therein nor enter into the most holy Mansions this Spirit doth make in the Father's house John 14.2 according as he allays and satiates the Father 's Fire in the Souls of Men but by her own blood like Christ Hebr. 9.12 and by offering herself wholly as that Sacrifice which was to be wholly burned or consumed by Fire Levit. 1.9 Judgment saith 1 Pet. 4.17 begins at the House of God that is at the Believers By Fire and by his Sword the Lord will plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord who are the chosen of God shall not be few but many Isa 66.16 To conclude as in Nature Life begins in the Fire and is fully perfected in the Light as I said all taking the beginning of its Life or of Motion from Heat by Fermentation the Light itself which is Life or the perfection of Life coming out of the Fire and subsisting no where one moment without Fire so in Divine Things also For Deus est ubique semper sibi similis God acts in all things alike Our Divine or New Life must begin at the Fire and we must return unto the Rock from which we were hewed and whence all things take their Birth and Motion and Duration Our Life must take from thence its first Principle of Motion which Motion is to be quell'd again by pouring water abundantly upon it that being kindled anew by some extraordinary spark of Grace which like Leaven added to Meal or Liquors sets them in Fermentation Matth. 13.31 33. it may ferment or be set in a hot burning Fever till it hath purged itself of its filth or of its Dross as doth refined Silver or Gold upon the Cupel and does thereby become pure and capable to abide with the devouring Fire or live for ever with God Isa 33.14 For as a Cordial given to a Patient who labours under some great Infection that hath invaded his Life sets him first in a great heat or hot Fit till Life helped by the strength of the Physick and by some drink given him at that time that comforts him overcomes its Enemy and drives it away by sweat So this Spark setting the Soul on Fire for a good while brings a hot Fit upon it and burns it so that it longs after nothing but Moisture Luke 16.24 which as soon as it is sent to it by the Refresher it draws so vehemently that it falls into that state which in a Chymical sense may be properly called Deliquium animae that is the Soul giving or melting into water or else drinking in the way Psal 110 7. of the same Brook as Christ did Matth. 20.23 that is of an absolute Resignation to God's Will Matth. 26.39 42. and receiving from this Cup some comfort and refreshment it is enabled to swear or to master and expel the strange Fire of those Lusts which by infecting of it had been the occasion of this preternatural Burning or Fermentation and to dip itself at last into a Flood of water whereof the Flood of Noah saith Peter 1 Epist 3.21 was a Figure and thus to be baptized with the same Baptism as Christ was Hence Physicians learn to give your Patients Drink when they are in a hot burning Fever And you Physicians of Souls help to set yours in this Life into a hot burning Fit and for Drink leave them to Christ for you cannot give it them till you have got some your selves The Jews have a Tradition that the Messiah's days will be a time of Weeping Fasting and Tribulation yet like our Lip-Christians who crack of the Law of Grace and understand it no more than the Wife of Zebedee Mat. 20.20 they look for Ease in those days whereas Ease is not the way leading to Eternal Life Matth. 7.13 In this world saith Christ to them who do really learn of him you shall have Tribulation John 16.33 And verily you shall weep and lament saith he ver 20 21 22. to all Mark 13.22 But the world shall rejoice and ye shall be sorrowful as a woman in travail but I 'll see you again and your heart shall rejoice because you are by this Birth deliver'd as a travailing Woman of a new Creature For by much Tribulation we get into God's Kingdom Acts 14.22 the entrance into Life being through this narrow gate which as it is known but to very few but few go through Matth. 7.14 Yet God would have us to be saved by going through it out of the House of Bondage the feverish and oppressive Infection of our Sins as did the old Israel our Type out of Egypt called the Iron Furnace Deut. 4.20 which burns the fiercest of all and passing through the Red Sea and then living as he did in the Desart 40 years that is as having no hope of any thing in the world all the time of our Life 40 Years being the time of most Mens Life in this world and being for 40 days tempted with Moses and Christ in the Desart of this world with Hunger Thirst Want Contempt and Sickness and Misery to answer the 40 days of Plenty Glory Pleasures wherein Adam was tempted in the Garden of Eden For so long he was tempted by the desire he had to have the world at his Will and to dispose of it independently from God and so long he was courted by the world which would have him for its own before he fell For thô he was in the world yet he was not of the world and he lived out of it in quite another principle or state viz. in that Heaven wherein the Son of Man was thô he was come down from thence John 3.33 as yet the love of the world had not captivated him And wo be to him that dies with Adam in those pleasures 1 Tim. 5.6 or in the Wilderness the dry place which Christ speaks of Matth. 12.43 with the People of Israel before the
40 days of Temptation are ended chap. 24.48 Therefore all Christians should be made acquainted with these things and their Watchmen saith Joel 2.1 should blow the Trumpet aloud and sound an Alarm to them for note this is to be done in the Lord 's holy Mountain the Church amongst the Faithful and not amongst the Heathen to warn them of that Fire and Sword which the Lord pleads with Ezek. 33. and which is the terrible and gloomy day of the Lord. But I doubt I am Vox clamantis in deserto that is where no body hears For O Lord who is the man that believes our report and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed John 12.38 There is none that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee Isa 64.7 However God is over all things and when we water and plant he may give encrease and he hath not lighted my Candle for me to hide or keep it under my Bed but to make it shine as far as I can to others which is I hope warrant enough for me to write without any further Licence or Ordination See what Thomas à Kempis and many other wise Men have left us in writing of the way to Happiness and of the necessity of entring into the Life Death and Sufferings of Christ For because these things be true I mean what I said of the Baptism of Fire and of the Birth of Water all wise Men who always know and justifie Truth Luke 7.35 own them and have often declared and taught them But as there is a variety of Gifts and of Administrations 1 Cor. 12.4 5. they have differently also expressed the same Jamblichus of Mysteries Haec utique sit tibi ad foelicitatem via Consider are decet quà praecipue ratione solvi possis à vinculis quibus anima circa formas at que species mundi contemperatur Est autem solutio nulla praeter ipsam Dei cognitionem Idea namque foelicitatis est ipsum cognoscere Bonum quemadmodum est Idea malorum ipsa quidem bonorum oblivio quae est deceptio inseparabilis à caduco à principiis enim cadens at que repulsa se ipsam projicit ad corporalem ideam dimetiendam à qua corporali Idea solvi debes ut contemplationi cognitioni Dei rursus jungaris Plato calls this I me an this state of Water whereby we become void of the Forms Idea's of outward things Conversio animae humanae in seipsam the Soul converting from things without it into itself Great Hermes with Solomon Cant. 5.2 Ob dormitio mentis à corporis sensibus A sleeping of the Body whil'st our Soul is waking I sleep but my heart is awake like Balaam's eyes that were open all the while his Body was in a trance Numb 24.4 and burning besides like that of the two Disciples of Christ in their way to Emmaus Luke 24.32 The Popish Saints call the same the internal way to God and inward Recollection of which Molina at Rome hath lately said enough to set the Priests against him who cannot abide to hear of dying and suffering but only of that which makes their heart glad Judg. 18.20 a Fat Living The whole Sum of Religion is for man to keep himself unspotted from worldly things or from the Love of the World Jam. 1.27 for in this consists the Love of God Matth. 6.24 and the Love of God with that of our Neighbour is the great Commandment and the Law and the Prophets A great Protestant Divine Famous both for Piety and Learning Bishop Vsher in answer to a Question about Sanctification which one made expresseth thus this Abstraction from the World and this dying by Fire I must tell you saith he we do not well understand what is Sanctification or the New Creature which God formeth by his own Spirit in every Soul which be regenerates of water For it is no less than for a Man to be brought to an entire resignation of his will to the Will of God and to live in the offering up of his Soul as a whole Burnt-offering like Christ to God the Father And how little are many of those who profess Christianity experimentally acquainted with this work in their Souls Nay and Notionally too I add the Protestants knowing little more of this I mean of the way to become a new Creature than what they call Repentance Which Word yet being taken in its right and genuine sense siguifies more than what they seem to understand by it that is more than any sorrow for Sin and setting upon mending amounts to For what is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is it either Protestant or Catholick Repentance No surely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is neither lashing your backs nor grieving two or three hours But it is the amendment itself duly performed it is a Resipiscence which is no less in English than a Fool and a Knave becoming at the same time both a wise and a good Man and a change or conversion from one state or quality viz. the Nature of a Beast to the most opposite state to wit the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 or at least that of Angels Luke 20.36 Which Christians flatter themselves in vain to attain unto by their common Repentance for there needs a hard striving a man must be violent to take God's Kingdom by Force And it can never be done without passing the great Gulph of God's Vengeance and Wrath threatned Gen. 2.17 Luke 16.26 21.22 And thô Peter in the Acts 2 38-3.19 mentions only the Baptism of Water and Repentance as the things necessary to obtain the Holy Ghost that makes Man a New Creature yet in his First Epistle speaking of another thing not strange to the Believers to wit the Firy Tryal he shews thereby that they go through some other thing than that which he calls there Repentance or that the word Repentance with the word Be Converted added to it in that place includes the Firy Tryal which he would not mention there because he spake before a mixt Assembly of People and it being one of those many things Christ who forbids to cast Pearls before Swine would not yet say to the World John 16.12 that cannot favor the things of God 1 Cor. 2.14 or more than Peter endure to hear of dying Matth. 16.22 23. he would not declare it them but left to the Holy Ghost the Revelation thereof to them that were not without God's Kingdom as the World is Mat. 4.11 But because it is God's Will that all men should be saved by opening of their blind eyes and by coming at the last to the knowledg of the Truth and the harvest is grown ripe as it appears from the French Prophets and their Prophesies I think it is high time for them that make mention of the Lord not to keep silence but to tell it publickly and found an Alarm of it But whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprehends this thing or no sure it is that we must dye before